U of T says pro-Palestinian protesters rejected latest offer

TORONTO — The University of Toronto says pro-Palestinian protesters who set up camp on campus more than a month ago have rejected a proposal similar to what protesters at other schools have accepted.

The university says the proposal sent last Thursday offered expedited processes for considering the protesters’ demands around divestment of companies profiting from Israel’s offensive in Gaza and greater transparency on investments.

It says administrators also confirmed the school doesn’t have any direct investments in such companies, including any that produce armaments.

The university says the proposal was “commensurate with or more comprehensive than the agreements that have resolved encampments at peer institutions.”

U of T has said it will not, however, cut ties with Israeli universities, as protesters have demanded.

Administrators say they are open to meeting with representatives of the encampment again “when there are productive reasons for doing so,” but will also continue to pursue an injunction that would allow police to clear the encampment.

Protest organizers were set to hold a news conference Monday afternoon. Students set up the encampment on May 2 to call on the university to cut its ties with Israel over the ongoing war in Gaza.

Protesters said they were joining students at other universities in Canada and the United states in setting up camps to call on their schools to disclose ties with the Israeli government, divest from Israeli companies and terminate partnerships with Israeli academic institutions that operated under parameters they opposed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press