Palestinian History/Reality Re-Write

"McGill always had some antisemitism. Always. It has a long history of it, and it's always been there."

"I've been shocked at two things. One, is the level of antisemitism. But, number two, is the total abandonment by all of my progressive colleagues and friends; erstwhile close friends."

"It's not even politically incorrect to be antisemitic anymore. All of the forces that make people behave ... none of that is in place." 

Dr. Gerald Batist, professor, former chair oncology department, McGill University

"We witnessed troubling situations last year that impacted students, faculty, and staff on our city's campuses. Among these was the deeply concerning encampment at McGill, which raised serious concerns within the Jewish campus community about their safety and well-being."

"Universities have a responsibility to ensure all students feel safe on campus."

Federation CJA/campus group Hillel

"[The] University will pursue disciplinary processes against individuals, who have been identified, participating in the encampment or other similar activities to the full extent outlined in our policies."

"We are also investigating the full spectrum of legal recourses available to us, including the potential recovery of damages."

McGill University spokesperson

Demonstrators outside the Bronfman Building (Feb. 22, 2024)

In a never-ending round of what is old is new again, Jews once more find themselves unwelcome on some Canadian university campuses to the extent that the extraordinarily flawed decisions by university authorities to negotiate with pro-Hamas groups on campus while feeling it is quite normal for Jewish students and professors to look after themselves to ensure that threats don't mount to become reality. Finding the McGill University detached by indifference to campus antisemitism reaching viral proportions, the message to Jews is obvious; you no longer belong here.

 

Demonstrations broke out in Canada with raucous pro-Hamas supporters celebrating Palestinian 'resistance' against the 'occupying' Israelis. A resistance that was demonstrated in an October 7 day of unrelenting  barbarism as 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered amidst the chaos of mass rape, mutilations, and abduction of Israeli children, the elderly, women, IDF soldiers, and foreign farm workers from farming communities close to the Gaza border with Israel.

The gore of sadistic savagery, the unspeakable odium of hate-filled berserkers loosed on civilian populations with orders to exact as much pain and fear as possible on people going about their normal lives only to be disabused of the notion that normalcy is permissible when neighbours mount violent assaults with the goal of committing atrocities geared to extract as much agony and pain as possible in pursuit of mass murder, events that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank celebrated while those abroad cast their net wide in scorning civilizational mores and verities in favour of bestiality.

Chanting "Viva, viva, intifada", "Go Back to Poland", and "Resistance is justified when people are occupied", demonstrators on campus, comprised of students as well as outsiders who organize these terrorist-supporting rallies such as Solidarity of Palestinian Human Rights, influential as a student group in inflaming latent antisemitism among parts of the student bodies and faculty prepared to help launch a massive rejection of Jews as 'outsiders' representative of a nation accused of 'genocide' against poor helpless Palestinians.

 

Flyer distributed at McGill University by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill

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Escalating demonstrations led to campus encampments, where Jewish students and faculty were abused, harassed and threatened and refused entry to campus. A coalition of anti-Israel groups organized a "Day of Shutdown", coinciding with the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht in Germany and Austria, preparation for civil exclusion and ultimately leading the way to the 'Final Solution', now emulated by Palestinian terrorists and lauded by Palestinian-supporting groups in Canada. A poster for the event featured demonstrators shattering window glass.

Following the Kristallnacht rally, the undergraduate student union at McGill voted 78 percent favouring a resolution that demanded divestment boycotting of Israel by McGill. The measure, university administrators warned, represented a breach of the school's constitution that could lead to the student body's affiliation and funding with McGill being jeopardized. During the winter the Bronfman building -- funded by Jewish philanthropy -- was blockaded, entrances were obstructed and classes were forced to move online.

In the spring, campus events deteriorated even further when 'activisits' -- aka terrorists-in-training -- defaced properties on campus and renamed buildings after Palestinian towns. "We are at a pivotal moment in our fight against settler colonialism and its violent legacies", wrote the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights. The encampment that followed was the very first one established throughout universities in Canada. McGill University administrators seemed incapable of restraining the activities and supporting its Jewish faculty and students.

"The resistance advances through occupied land with one goal: liberation. We salute our brave people on the ground", appeared on an Instagram post dated October 8 by SPHR, in celebrating the atrocities committed by Hamas. By June, McGill administrators were 'negotiating' with the encampment leadership; in other words giving them the gift of legitimacy, despite their illegal and criminal actions. At that time SPHR produced a poster featuring young people wearing keffiyehs, armed with an AK-17, to advertise a "youth summer program".

McGill politely requested the student union to "sever their relationship with SPHR"; that failure to do so "will be interpreted as their endorsement of SPHR's activities". The student union's website still listed the group, regardless. Prior to the set up of the encampment, anti-Israel activists marched through the university library while students were cramming for exams. No action was taken by the university in reaction to these provocations, leaving the 'activists' with the impression that nothing would ever be done to deter them in their disruptive, threatening and illegal actions.

"My research is highly dependent on the goodwill of my lab mates and if they knew I had these views [as a Jew], they would likely refuse to work with me", said a McGill medical student asking for anonymity in view of the fact that his lab has Arab and Palestinian researchers unaware that he is Jewish, although he has been called "kyke", and "Jewboy" on occasion since the beginning of the war.

Montreal police control McGill University's Roddick Gates ahead of a pro-Israel counter-demonstration near the anti-Israel encampment on the campus on May 2, 2024. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

"As we walk to class and pass signs calling for another intifada, a violent uprising to murder Jews and Israelis, we feel threatened."

"As we walk to the library and hear protests glorifying Hamas, we feel terrified."

"We feel alone."

Nicole Nashen, McGill University law student

Research by Ari David Blaff