Desmond Cole on resilience and solidarity with Palestine

On April 17, 2024 a pro-Palestine protest encampment was built at Columbia University where students called on their school to disclose and divest their investments in companies linked to Israel and its war on Gaza. This inspired a movement in universities across North America –and the globe– for students to create their own on-campus encampments. 

After months of peaceful protest, the encampments at UofT, McGill, UOttawa have now been dismantled, but the pressure for divestment continues. 

Today on rabble radio, freelance reporter Stephen Wentzell sits down with journalist and activist Desmond Cole to outline the misconceptions some had about the student encampments and what responsible reporting for Palestine looks like.

Desmond Cole is a journalist, radio host, and activist. His debut book, The Skin We’re In, won the Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. It was also named a best book of 2020 by The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, CBC, Quill & Quire, and Indigo. Cole’s writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The Walrus, and the Ottawa Citizen, among others. He lives in Toronto.

Stephen Wentzell is a journalist based in New York City covering politics, social issues, and the criminal legal system. A former national politics reporter at rabble.ca, Stephen has also worked at publications including CTV Atlantic and CityNews Halifax. In 2023, Stephen began studying at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, where he is concentrating in local accountability journalism, as well as health and science reporting. When he's not working, Stephen can be found snuggling with his cat Benson and watching the latest episode of the Real Housewives.

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