Pro-Palestinian protesters leave Dalhousie University quad, building

Pro-Palestinian protesters who had occupied green space at Dalhousie's Halifax campus for more than two months left on Monday afternoon shortly after police arrived at the university. 

Earlier in the afternoon many of the protesters who had set up tents at Studley Quad had moved down the street to occupy a university building, a move that came three days after the school issued a trespass notice ordering protesters to leave the tent site.

Tents were briefly pitched during the afternoon inside the Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building on University Avenue. The social media account of Free Palestine Halifax-NS said the faculty of management building is the location of the office for an Israel exchange program.

Halifax Regional Police officers arrived at the building, but had mostly left the campus late Monday afternoon.

As of 4:30 p.m. AT protesters were gone from the Kenneth C. Rowe building and the encampment site at the Studley Quad had also been cleared.

Minutes later, the university announced it was closing its Halifax campus until further notice, citing safety concerns relating to the encampment.

Owen Skeen, president of NSCAD University's students' union, said police who arrived on campus requested to see his ID so he could be banned from Dalhousie University.

He said he plans to appeal the ban, and feels Dalhousie has taken "a pretty horrible position regarding academic freedom."

"They've shown that they do not allow student unions to support their students on Dalhousie premises," he said in an interview late Monday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the university said it had begun "operations" to remove objects from the two-month-old encampment site at the Studley Quad. A number of protesters said security guards started dismantling tents around 6:30 a.m., but then stopped and put up yellow caution tape around the encampment.

The group Students for the Liberation of Palestine Kjipuktuk, which was behind the protest, wanted Dalhousie to cease all partnerships with Israeli academic institutions and suspend financial ties with the country.

Sara MacCallum, the president of the University of King's College students' union, said guards who arrived at the encampment tried to remove a small library and a display noting the names of Palestinian children who had died in the Israel-Hamas war, but students stopped them.

"Students are showing that they're here until divestment, and they will not be moved unless forced," she said.

The university on Friday said all protesters had to leave the Studley Quad by 7 p.m. Sunday, but the deadline came and went as demonstrators gathered at the site that evening in support of the encampment.

The encampment is among many that sprouted up on university campuses in North America to protest Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

A Dalhousie spokesperson said in an email "operations to remove objects and property from the encampment site" began Monday morning, but the university won't comment further.

MacCallum said Sunday the trespass notice issued by Dalhousie was "unreasonable, unacceptable," and protesters were "speaking out against violence and their tuition money going to support war and genocide."

She said a key concern is that Dalhousie and a number of other Halifax universities haven't moved with enough urgency to get rid of any investments in weapons manufacturing.

Dalhousie said earlier this month its fund managers would begin examining investments for "controversial weapons and weapons of mass destruction" during annual reviews, and would be required to answer new questions on geopolitical risk and human rights violations.

Gary Karlin, a local rabbi who stopped by the encampment on Sunday, said he was in favour of it being dismantled.

He said on one occasion he spotted the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" on the side of a building, and said he views it as "a call to genocide" against Jewish people.

"Yes, there's free speech in this country, thankfully," he said Sunday. "But at what point does it become not free speech but speech which commandeers the stage and actually destroys property."

Israel's land and air attacks in Gaza came after Hamas-led militants stormed the Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, took 250 hostages and killed 1,200 people, according to numbers from the Israeli government.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed since October, according to the Gaza health ministry. Critics have accused Israel of committing genocide, but it has denied the allegations.

Students for the Liberation of Palestine Kjipuktuk has said it includes students from Dalhousie, King's College, Saint Mary's, NSCAD and Mount Saint Vincent universities, and has raised concerns with the investment practices of several schools.

Last month, it pointed to what it said was about $1 million the Dalhousie endowment fund had invested in an Israeli chemical company and in the American aerospace company Boeing, which makes missiles.

The securities are noted in Dalhousie's 2023 investment report, but a Dalhousie spokesperson confirmed Monday the latest 2024 report shows the university did not hold the investments in the companies.