As part of UW Voices for Palestine’s Club’s rally, about 35 students affiliated with various campus groups gathered outside of the Federation Hall early afternoon today, Sept. 25, to protest UW investment with Technion, Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and all weapons manufacturers. A Board and Senate Retreat is scheduled in that location today. 

Throughout the protest, the student clubs chanted about their disapproval of UW investments with weapons manufacturers. 

“All of these weapons manufacturers who are currently contributing to the genocide in Palestine and the destruction of families and refugee camps in Lebanon,” stated Nicholas Joseph, a media liaison for the group. 

He continued, “I would call for everyone, no matter who you are or what situation you’re in, to join an organization and stand up and take action and fight for liberation.”

In a Sept. 3 statement, UW President Vivek Goel said the university would adopt new freedom of expression principles proposed by a newly formed task force, as well as work on an action plan that would define UW’s position on topics related to freedom of expression. In an interview, Goel mentions that “there is a commitment to implementing the recommendations…[and they] will all get done in the course of the next year.”

One of their current priorities is to define how the University takes positions on different topics, which ties back to a previous statement they had made about institutional neutrality. In the light of “different faculties, departments, or different groups [potentially wanting] to take [different] positions,” Goel underscores the difficulty of truly developing a position with a consensus. In the interim, he says the University will refrain from issuing statements on external matters and will “focus on…community needs.”

Another priority is updating policies to be inclusive of actions online and on social media, as the current “30 to 40-year-old” policies don’t address these spaces. Specifically, policies on room booking, freedom of speech, and rights and responsibilities of student groups will be examined and changed in collaboration with WUSA and GSA.

The changes brought about by the task force will not directly affect UW Voices for Palestine, as they operate under WUSA’s policies. However, the task force will likely have an impact on WUSA’s operation, which may have trickle-down effects on student groups like UW Voices for Palestine.

Nevertheless, Goel reiterated that “policy 33 [concerning] ethical behaviour, covers all members in our community…so regardless of whether they are part of a [student] group or not, they will be governed by anything we do in those domains.” This echoes what he also said in his statement: “While we will continue to respect the rights of members of our community to engage in protest actions, our policies, procedures and rules will be firmly enforced. We will not tolerate behaviours which are illegal and disrupt the learning, research or work of other members of the community.”