The president of the University of British Columbia has told pro-Palestinian protesters that the school must remain neutral on the Gaza conflict.
Benoit-Antoine Bacon says in response to demands by the organizers of a protest encampment on the Vancouver campus that professors and students hold a broad range of opinions and the university can鈥檛 鈥減resume to speak for everyone.鈥�
Bacon says if the university took a position, it would undermine the rights of people who hold different views to express themselves.
He says the university isn鈥檛 engaging in 鈥渕oral relativism,鈥� and it hopes for a ceasefire and a lasting peace in the Middle East.
A handwritten set of the protesters鈥� demands shared by Bacon says they want UBC to 鈥渃ondemn and demand an end鈥� to what they call 鈥渢he genocide in Gaza.鈥�
Other demands include the university divesting from companies associated with Israel and its actions in Gaza, a boycott of Israeli institutions, a ban on the RCMP on campus, and an affirmation of 鈥淧alestinians鈥� right to resist.鈥�
Bacon says that UBC is willing to engage on divestment, but its endowment fund does not directly own stocks in companies identified by the movement.
On the matter of a boycott, he says the university respects faculty members who want to engage in academic partnerships.
He says UBC has been 鈥渕easured and restrained鈥� on the issue of police at protests, and he wants to 鈥渂etter understand鈥� the demand about affirming Palestinian rights.
Dozens of tents have been pitched at the university鈥檚 MacInnes Field since April 29 when the protest encampment began.
It is among encampments at multiple universities across Canada and elsewhere protesting the actions of Israel in the Gaza conflict.
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