By Maxwell Heroux & Maheeshan Sivanesan
Campus movements in support of Palestine have spread across Canada, the most prominent of such being the student encampments set up at universities. Famously, encampments were set up at University of Toronto, University of Windsor, and one familiar to Ottawa locals, the University of Ottawa. These movements are often met with double standards, opposition, and irregular enforcement of rules, Carleton being no exception.
An encampment was avoided at Carleton through barricades for a “construction project,” originally being reported to The Charlatan, Carleton’s undergraduate student newspaper. It was later acknowledged by the Carleton’s president Jerry Tomberlin, in a university senate meeting on September 27, that this was to prevent “the possibility of an encampment” on campus. This is one example of a pattern of actions taken by the administration to silence Palestinian voices and support at the university.

These encampments may be new, but the focus is not. For years, students have been forming organizations focused on human rights in Palestine. In 2008, Carleton students formed Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) as a working group of OPIRG-Carleton. At the University of Ottawa, students formed INSAF in 2019, which was the group mainly responsible for organizing the uOttawa encampment.
These protests were fuelled by the most recent war in Gaza, although it is more aptly called a genocide. As shown by Amnesty International’s report on the matter addressing how Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians between October 2023 and October 2024 according to the enclave’s health ministry. The death tolls have likely approached over 186,000 as shown by The Lancet’s academic analysis of the likely under-reported casualties. This genocide in Gaza fuelled the motivation for these protests, igniting calls for a ceasefire and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the war zones.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is another such organization fighting against Israeli apartheid, founded at the University of California, Berkeley in 1993. It has grown to include over 350 chapters across other universities, including at Carleton University which was established in 2020.
President of Carleton’s SJP chapter, Bessan Amer, defined the organization’s goal in an interview as “educating, raising awareness, and mobilizing our student body to advocate for Palestinians… and help the movement for the liberation of Palestine.”
These campus groups lead movements that push for the liberation and survival of the Palestinian people, particularly through the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) campaign against Israel. The BDS movement calls for individuals to boycott organizations operating in or supporting occupied territories (such as travel technology corporation Booking Holdings and weapons manufacturers Bae Systems). BDS also calls for companies to divest by withdrawing investments from such entities and for governments to impose sanctions to put pressure on the Israeli government.
SJP Carleton, while rallying for the university to divest from Israel, often sees interference from Campus Safety Services (CSS) Patrol Services, a department of various teams including Special Constables. These constables are responsible for patrolling campus and engaging with members of the campus community, with sweeping powers comparable to Ottawa Police Services
“…the method it was carried out shows a disregard for proper communication with student leaders.”
One such example of interference was at the Palestine 101 event on October 28th, 2024, meant to educate students on the situation in Palestine. This event featured Muhannad Ayyash, a prominent Professor of Sociology at Mount Royal University, as guest speaker.

SJP President Amer described how this event was interrupted by CSS, who claimed they were responding to a report. The deployed Special Constables “passed the open door,” avoiding the person designated to handle questions and ensure safety for those at the event; they entered through an alternate door instead. Although the event proceeded, this interruption and the method it was carried out shows a disregard for proper communication with student leaders.
On December 3, 2024, SJP Carleton and the Carleton chapter of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) organized a sit-in at MacOdrum Library, where students studied together with signs in support of Palestine. Within the first hour, CSS interrupted the event enforcing posting policies, and the students complied. They removed all postings from walls and placed them on policy compliant surfaces (chairs and tables) instead.

Special Constables returned due to a complaint, this time regarding messaging on whiteboards. It included messages such as “calling an end to genocide” and “Carleton divest now.” In a video posted to Instagram, CSS Constables are heard to claim these words “incited hate” and tell organizers to erase them, leading to the end of the demonstration.

SJP Carleton was also told to cease tabling at Tory Junction due to a “fire hazard” and violation of posting policy. Given the consistency of SJP’s tabling at Tory Junction being shut down, members began to track the tabling of other groups there. In a span of two weeks, over a dozen groups tabled there without being shutdown or even spoken to by CSS Officers. SJP Carleton attempted twice during this time and it was shut down both times.

The commonality between these events is the selective application of rules. Carleton has a poster policy like the one cited at the library sit-in and rules for tabling at Tory Junction. However, it is not used to shut down events, except in the case of Palestinian solidarity. As Amer states, “we’ve seen many flyers on walls around Carleton, it’s not an enforced rule.” Carleton’s obscure rules are only used against select groups.
“Palestinian movement is the most oppressed on campus.”
SJP Carleton was not the only one impacted. The Carleton University Human Rights Society (CUHRS) has seen increased scrutiny when it came to Palestinian solidarity events. The Leveller spoke with Nir Hagigi, who is the Co-President of CUHRS and President of IJV Carleton; both of these clubs are approved by Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA). Hagigi stated that CUHRS has faced much more restrictions with events related to Palestine versus other causes.
“The most clear example is the introduction of the new risk assessment processes, which happened after the genocide began,” Hagigi said. A panel that was once easy to run now requires legal waivers for speakers, risk assessment forms for events, and campus security oversight.
The Leveller made a request to speak to a representative from CSS, but had not received a response by the time of publishing.

As Hagigi summarizes, “it’s very clear that the university is treating different causes in different ways” and that the “Palestinian movement is the most oppressed on campus.” An example of the university treating different causes differently can be seen with divestment from Russia. While the university has failed to divest from Israel, Hagigi explained they “completely divest themselves from Russia” early on in the latest Russia-Ukraine war.
Another example is the Silenced by Scholasticide exhibit organized by IJV Carleton, which was initially supposed to be held at the library, but later said it was a risk to the workers. Just months before, there was a similar Ukraine-related exhibit held at the library, with no issues or interference by administration.
SJP, IJV, CUHRS, and others created Carleton For Palestine, a coalition to support the efforts of Palestinian solidarity organizations on campus. CUSA has demonstrated that a lot is possible through shared goals. For example, CUSA offered space at The Wing for the Silenced by Scholasticide exhibit. CUSA also voted to hold a survey about anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism on campus. The Charlatan has catalogued a number of initiatives by CUSA in support of Palestinian human rights. This shows great progress on the part of the student-led organizations on campus, and a glimmer of hope for the BDS and Palestinian solidarity movement.
“You want to see the university be a beacon of human rights.”
The BDS movement has been manifested within CUSA by “passing divestment motions within the student union… [and creating] a divestment subcommittee.” The chair of this subcommittee is Dana Sayed Ahmed, a CUSA councillor for the Faculty of Engineering and Design. She defines their goal as “investigating plausible methods for encouraging Carleton University to divest from businesses involved in and facilitating the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

As a result of support for the divestment movement, this committee was founded in early November 2024. The divestment subcommittee is also responsible for gathering input from “key players in the Palestinian justice movement, including the Coalition for Palestine and SJP” to report to CUSA about “anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism.” The committee bringing together so much information has allowed CUSA to better support Palestinian voices on campus.
“The university must work with their students and student-led organizations.”
The next steps are clear, as outlined by Amer, Sayed Ahmed, and Hagigi in interviews: the university needs to recognize anti-Palestinian racism and recognize the rights of marginalized groups as a whole. Reflecting on the overarching BDS movement, Hagigi says, “to divest from Israel should be the highest priority… you want to see the university be a beacon of human rights.”
These campus groups, the encampments, none of it occurred without a purpose – that purpose is to boycott, divest, and sanction the Israeli government. This past year of heightened campus activism has highlighted that the university must work with their students and student-led organizations, now more than ever with rising death tolls globally, to divest from all genocide and war. In failure to do this, they only make themselves appear complicit.