UBC Students Escalate Protests for Boycott and Divestment

On March 15, students and staff at the University of British Columbia (UBC) began a hunger strike to protest the administration's stalling of negotiations for divestment. Two days later, 7,000 students voted to go on strike to pressure their university to adopt their demands. This comes just as Israel one-sidedly cancels the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

UBC Divest, the organization behind these actions, is a coalition made up of students, staff, faculty and alumni groups. They came together to pressure UBC to stop investing in companies complicit in the genocide and ethnic cleansing and cut ties with Israeli universities which are assisting in the oppression of Palestinians. 

The results of the vote for the strike were 76% in favour, with a turnout of 19% of the student population. In comparison, only 17% of the more than 60,000 UBC students voted in the student union's most recent general election. Frank*, an organizer at UBC, underscored the nature of this victory as “a really resounding success, extremely strong.”

“This is the result of all of that work that people have been doing across the movement, across the student body. This is a big culmination showing that, yes, students don't accept investment in genocide.” 

This is not the first time that students have been called upon to vote on a boycott, divestment and sanction motion. Between 2017 and 2022, two attempted votes were blocked by the administration, and one motion that passed was ignored entirely. It was the start of the genocide in 2023 and this attitude that forced the students to set up camp for 71 days last year, finally forcing the administration to negotiate with them.

Three UBC students have now been on a full hunger strike for a week, with at least two more participating partially. Hunger strikes have long been used in the Palestinian struggle and other liberation movements in Ireland and India. Though extreme, graduate student May Lim* says that it is “such a small step relative to the forced starvation and deprivation of medical supplies, housing, water, power, everything of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Frank detailed the students’ demands:

• Divestment: UBC should pull $26 million in investments—from weapons manufacturers and firms profiting off disputed Palestinian lands—representing 1.1% of its portfolio.​​​​​​​
• Academic Boycott: The university must cut ties with Israeli institutions like Tel Aviv University, Technion, and Hebrew University, and end programs linked to excavations on Palestinian land.
• Condemnation: UBC is urged to openly denounce what students describe as genocide and the academic suppression of Palestinians.
• Reaffirmation: The institution should publicly acknowledge Palestinian rights to resist and return under international law.
• Campus Safety: Students call for “cops off campus,” criticizing the RCMP’s role in targeting Palestinian and marginalized groups during protests.

“We've seen significant repression of instructors, faculty, staff who have spoken out for Palestine,” said Frank, referring to multiple smear campaigns and firings. “It's a crucial moment for academic freedom across the board that instructors are given the room to speak out about Palestine and about genocide and international human rights violations.”

“Given the horrific news of the renewed atrocious bombing of Gaza and the resumption of hot war by Apartheid Israel and the ongoing bombing of Yemen, we feel very strongly that we need to be even more resolute now in pressing for Apartheid Israel to no longer be able to act with impunity,” said May Lim.

The hunger strike is ongoing, and the student strike is scheduled for the March 24 and 25 to match up with student strikes for Palestine in Quebec. In addition to aligning student protests on a national level, the timing will build pressure on campus to a climax before the next Board of Governors meeting on March 28.

*The students interviewed preferred to use pseudonyms as they feared retaliation from campus administration and RCMP.