By: Noeka Nimmervoll, Staff Writer
Content warning: descriptions and mentions of genocide, ethnic cleansing, inhumane conditions, violence, police brutality.
On Thursday, June 26, SFU’s Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies hosted a screening of The Encampments: Inside America’s Student Uprising at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. In the opening remarks, associate professor Adel Iskandar acknowledged the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) lands on which the theatre exists. He added, “If we can think about freedom and justice on Coast Salish territories, we cannot divorce that from the same freedom struggle for Palestinians and other Indigenous communities around the world,” recognizing the view that all struggles for liberation are connected.
Directed by Kei Pritsker and Michael T. Workman, the documentary centers around the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a sweeping political movement in the US that began at Columbia University in New York on April 17, 2024. I was excited to see the film as a pro-Palestinian activist who engages in marches, actively learns about the ongoing genocide, and boycotts brands, and a university student who had observed encampments but had not been a part of any.
Iskandar paid tribute to the risks at play for all those who contributed to the film: individuals at the encampments, filmmakers, producers, directors, and distributing companies. For me, watching the film contained this duality: amazement at the bravery of all the students who risked their education to stand up for Palestine, and the horrific reality of the genocide, against the brutality of the university’s response to the students. The film displayed the massive power struggle between the unrelenting status quo and the unaccepting voices of the future. These activists show us that genocide, a horrifying reality, is one never to accept or concede to. The grander ideas — humanity, community, and education — were woven into the fabric of the film’s excellence.
The documentary highlighted the connection between Palestinians and Columbia students. Palestinians are subject to ongoing, indiscriminate bombing by the Israeli army that is funded by US dollars. Columbia University, just like SFU, invests money from corporations that has ties with the Israeli government and companies like Lockheed Martin that profit off of the genocide. The Columbia students pitched tents for the focused goal of insisting that the university divests from Israel and US arms dealers. More than a hundred campuses across the US followed suit. So far, neither Columbia nor SFU has divested from their ties to Israel.
The film contained clips from Gaza: bombed concrete and debris dominating the land as Palestinians went about their days. The film’s visuals were alarming, especially in a segment showing Gazan universities being targeted by the Israeli military. It was unsurprising to see the inhumane conditions Palestinians suffer through as they experience ethnic cleansing. The documentary showed a starkly different reality at Columbia; its beautiful and well-preserved lawns and buildings mirroring the manicured minds of the students who study to be the future of America. This massive privilege gap is impossible to ignore, and was the motivation for the organized activists at Columbia. The destruction of all of Gaza, including their universities, serves to drive the will of the students at Columbia as they face arrest and brute force from the NYPD, threats of the National Guard interventions, and suspension or expulsion from university.
As the film played out, the message that I saw became clear. The students at Columbia were afraid of the university’s actions, but they were more afraid of their inaction — of the fact that their tuition dollars funding the genocide of Palestinians. Above all else, they were driven by their humanity. The solidarity of Columbia’s activists was not borne from anything smaller than empathy for fellow humans in Palestine that are still experiencing tremendous suffering at the hands of a violent regime. The encampments were sites of community and respite, with open Jewish and Islamic practices that brought knowledge and kinship to all who were interested.
After the film, there was a group Q&A with the organizers and audience members, discussing encampments that have occupied the local scene. This provided the opportunity for audience members to speak: several members had been part of encampments that occurred in BC, such as those that took place in UBC and UVic. One member was a recent graduate of Columbia University. They talked about similar experiences in the encampments: support from local businesses supplying food, sharing of culture and resources within the camps, and the feeling of safety that the camps provided. The inaction of the university administration, the empty promises, all echoed Columbia’s experience. I saw a real connection between each audience member, a feeling of shared humanity that did not leave the room even when the film was over.
The Encampments is a powerful reminder that the Palestinian genocide is ongoing. The intertwined nature of these protests, the community they created and continue to create, the theatre where we watched the documentary, all came together as a testament to the fact that the cause for Palestine remains strong and unified in our collective hearts.
Watch The Encampments at Watermelon Pictures.
