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Fernando Arce
Fernando Arce participated in the 2024 pro-Hamas encampment at UofT. He showed support for terrorism and spread hatred of Israel and Canada in multiple posts about the encampment.
On May 2, 2024, Arce posted on X a video from the encampment and wrote: “It’s something entirely different BEING THERE! I urge to go…”
On the same date, Arce posted on X a photo from the encampment and wrote: “‘Long live the intifada!…we stand with Gaza side by side!…Free the people, Free the land!’”
The term “intifada” translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection” and carries the connotation of terrorist violence, including suicide bombings, hijackings, shootings and stabbings.
Also on May 2, 2024, Arce posted on X: “‘Resistance is justified, when people are occupied!’ ‘From Turtle island to Palestine, colonization is a crime!’ ‘Viva viva Palestina! Viva viva Intifada!’”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” is a euphemism for nationalistic terror and is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
The phrase “Turtle Island” or “occupied Turtle Island” is a name that some indigenous peoples use for North America. The call to “decolonize” Turtle Island, shouted at anti-Israel rallies and backed by major anti-Israel activist groups, is a call for the destruction of the United States of America and Canada. Similarly, the call to “decolonize” Palestine is a call for Israel’s destruction.
On June 6, 2024, Arce posted on X multiple photos from the encampment and wrote: “‘...existence is resistance!’...” One of the photos showed a Canadian flag with the maple leaf crossed out.
UofT is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Fernando Arce’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT)
On May 2, 2024, activists from the UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) group “stormed down” [00:00:24] the fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas encampment, which they called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.”
That day, Occupy UofT called on “community members to…help us defend our encampment” at an emergency rally in the evening. Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. The activists also chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
One speaker, Nabil Jalbout, said [00:09:02]: “...we are not fighting for peace, we are fighting for liberation, because ‘peace’ is a white man's word.” Another speaker, Ahmad Jarrar Hajahmad, claimed [00:05:52]: “All these Israeli and Zionist entities fill all these politicians with money in their pockets…we already know who runs this system…”
Signs displayed at the encampment said: “LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA” and “LIBERATION FOR ALL REQUIRES RESISTANCE FROM ALL.”
On May 4, 2024, anti-Israel protesters at the encampment assaulted a Jewish man, punching him in the stomach as they forcibly took his Israeli flag. The attackers told the man [00:01:02]: “God bless the armed resistance,” and: “Go back to Europe!” They also reportedly called him “a “dirty Jew.”
Protesters “occupied” [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT’s warning they were trespassing. The group said they would not leave until UofT divested from companies that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine” and terminated partnerships with Israeli academic institutions.
Following the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle - 🔻- became a Hamas symbol. This symbol appeared on large signs at the encampment multiple times. Erin Mackey, one of the primary organizers, is openly pro-Hamas, having used the symbol in her activism. In addition, pro-Hamas marches that began in other parts of the city concluded at the encampment.
On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at the request of UofT’s Governing Council, requiring students to clear the encampment. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote [slides 5-6]: “We are just getting started…come fall, every incoming student will hear our message loud and clear…Whatever institution you have access to and influence over - you need to take this campaign there!” The statement concluded: “Long live the intifada.”
The encampment was one of over 140 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.
Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians. As of May 26, 2024, 125 hostages remained in Hamas captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Fernando Arce is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of August 2024, Arce’s LinkedIn profile said he was “one of the co-founders and senior editor” at The Grind, which he described as “a new free print alt news publication covering local news and arts in Toronto and the GTA [greater Toronto area].”
Also as of August 2024, Arce’s LinkedIn profile said he graduated from Western University (Western) with a master’s degree in journalism in 2014. Western is located in London, Ontario, Canada.
As of the same date, Arce’s LinkedIn said he was located in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
