Some blame outsiders for spread of pro-Palestinian encampments. The idea isn't new, say students and experts

Pro-Palestinian protests continue to grow on campuses across North America, with encampments at 15 Canadian universities set up to date.

But the demonstrations have also attracted scrutiny, with some critics raising questions about who is supporting these groups and pointing to "outside agitators" and shadowy sources of funding.

For example, speaking in the House of Commons last week, Kevin Vuong, Independent MP for Spadina-Fort York in Toronto, claimed that the University of Toronto (U of T) encampment was a "sham protest" and that the majority of those present were "demonstrators-for-hire," not students.

In an April 30 interview with As It Happens, Fabrice Labeau, vice-provost of student life and learning at McGill University in Montreal, said the university has "seen the arrival of large numbers of people from outside the McGill community" but did not provide specifics.

Some have attempted to connect the protests to conspiracies involving billionaire financier George Soros or even Hamas, the militant group that led the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that Israeli officials say killed an estimated 1,200 people. The subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza has claimed the lives of around 35,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

Several students whom CBC News interviewed over the past two weeks say the allegations of outside influences are baseless and insulting.

"I'm very appalled by those claims," said Kalliopé Anvar McCall, a fourth-year U of T student in diaspora studies who took part in the encampment.

She said the comments are part of "deliberate attempts to try to weaponize various terms or various ideas against pro-Palestinian expression to try to silence us …, to tarnish our image.

"I can say with 100 per cent certainty that these [claims] are completely false and unfounded."

Broadly speaking, the protesters are demanding that their universities disclose their stakes in and divest from investments they say support Israel's actions against Palestinians, such as weapons manufacturers and the defence industry more generally. 

Some also want to see academic boycotts of Israeli universities that operate in the occupied territories.

Accusations pointing to outside agitators suggest a movement's demands are manufactured or otherwise illegitimate. Angus Johnston, a historian of student activism at the City University of New York, says this tactic has been used to discredit protests at least as far back as the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.

"The idea behind the accusation of an 'outside agitator' is, at its heart, the idea that the community that is rising up, the community that is engaging in this organizing, wouldn't be doing it if not for being spurred on, manipulated, pressured from outside," he said.

"Over and over again, we see that that's false."