Building solidarity with Palestine on campuses

By Spring Magazine-March 24, 2022

On March 16, 2022 Spring Magazine hosted a roundtable discussion on how do we build solidarity with Palestine on campuses? This discussion panel looked at the history, achievements, challenges, and opportunities for building campus based movements in support of Palestine. It featured organizers Laura Khoury, Yara Shoufani and Hossam Sleiman who had all been part of successful BDS campaigns at different post-secondary campuses.

Speakers:

• Laura Khoury is a Palestinian activist based in Montreal (originally from Jaffa, Palestine), and an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement. Laura was an organizer with the McGill BDS Action Network and part of the successful BDS campaign at Students’ Society of McGill University.
• Hossam Sleiman is Palestinian originally from Windsor and was involved in student-based activism during his time at the University of Windsor, primarily through the Palestine Solidarity Group (PSG). The majority of his focus as a student organizer was on building wider support for Palestine on campus and driving a BDS campaign via a referendum.
• Yara Shoufani is an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto chapter. Yara was an organizer at McMaster University and involved with the successful BDS campaign at the McMaster University’s Student Union.

The discussion was moderated by Spring’s Youssra Rahmouni.