Placating Pro-Hamas Demonstrators, Failing Jewish Students at McGill

"Community members and guests must respect applicable laws and university policies at all times."

"The heightened security presence near Roddick Gates and elsewhere on campus is in place to protect both our community and our property."

McGill University statement

"They [pro-Hamas agitators] have not tried to hide their hateful and antisemitic intent." 

"Rather, our universities have chosen to turn a blind eye rather than stand up for their Jewish students. The consistent failure of our universities to take action against the hate taking place on our campus has emboldened anti-Israel activists to become more radical."

"Our universities must take a stand, and where they fail to adequately protect their Jewish students, they must be held accountable."

McGill law student Nicole Nashen

 

"[Constructive dialogue is required.] This is especially so in a moment like the present, when nuanced argument is far too often overtaken by absolutist ideologies that sequester themselves within echo chambers. When advocates demand universities align themselves uniquely with their rhetoric or take actions that essentially aim to decimate or denigrate another party, such a role becomes a non-starter."

"Too often, such advocates assert that their demands are unquestionably valid and must be met, failing which they will take any and all means to impose their will."

"This is what universities are up against. It is daunting and dangerous, including and especially for society as a whole."

McGill University President Deep Saini

"McGill offered amnesty to the individuals of the encampment who had explicitly broken the student code, spat at the dean, and orchestrated the systematic exclusion and intimidation of our community."

"It is irrational for the administration to willingly reward those who brazenly violate the student code, vandalize property, harass students, chant violent slogans, and hang effigies which invert the memory of the Holocaust by equating Israel with Nazi Germany."

"...Are all rules at McGill optional, or are they only disregarded when Jewish students are the victims?"

"How much more will be tolerated. What is the McGill administration waiting for -- a public lynching of one of their Jewish students, or will they once again grant amnesty to those who break the law?"

Open letter by 1,500 students and community members

"Students at McGill University were greeted with a deplorable scene on Sunday. This behavior is deeply troubling. Jewish students already face challenges on campus, and this incident only exacerbates their sense of vulnerability. It is a deliberate effort to sow fear and intimidation among the Jewish community on campus. The encampments were never conducive to peace, and this incident serves as further evidence of that."                                 Mayor Jeremy Levin

Suffice it to say that the Jewish community at large, Jewish students at Canadian universities, and McGill University in particular, along with Jewish university faculty members, feel isolated, targeted and forgotten as they are left to cope with threatening intimidation, harassment, physical violence to accompany the violent rhetoric leaving them feeling disconsolate and no longer a vital part of university life. They are, instead, threatened and excluded, reliant only on their own devices to ensure their safety and security in an incendiary environment of belligerence and obvious antisemitism.

While McGill assures enquirers that the campus is private property where graffiti is not tolerated, images on social media show messages that include "F--k a 2-state solution", "The Zionist entity cannot recover from its atrocities. It must be taken down, by any means necessary", along with other impolite and verbally violent messages. Obviously the hate-crowd that revels in viral antisemitism is blissfully unaware that they have been and are committing ongoing forbidden University red lines. As for the Roddick Gates being policed for illegal acts, signs claiming Zionists should be barred from campus have their place there, as well.

 

According to impacted Jewish students, the school has been in no hurry to remove such messages from campus, along with and in particular, the red triangles representing the Hamas signal that indicates death for Jews/Israelis and anyone who is deigned to be an enemy of Hamas. The Hamas supporters on campus renamed the sidewalk close to the main gates on campus in  honour of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh when news arrived of his untimely death. 

 

Anti-Israel protesters gather on McGill’s campus on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023. Photo by John Mahoney/Postmedia

While the university administration has repeatedly failed to speak with and reassure concerned Jewish students and staff, in mid-June university executives offered a placatory financial transparency of the school's investment portfolio, along with financial study assistance to displaced Palestinian students, as well as amnesty to all activists, including the occupiers of the James Administration Building. Offers which affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine, based in the U.S. -- SPHR -- dismissed as "laughable".

Jewish students, concerned that the same administrators who went out of their way to satisfy the grievances of the pro-Hamas demonstrators, gave them short shrift, dismissing their concerns, led to over 1,500 students and community members signing an open letter addressed to McGill leaders, entreating administrators to "enforce their own rules", citing in particular the amnesty offer to the encampment occupiers, an effort to appease those who engaged in illegal criminal actions which left them "at a true loss for words".

 

The university's co-president of McGill's Muslim Medical Association chapter who happens to be the equity commissioner for the faculty as well, took part in a Montreal protest on October 8; an event that characterized the atrocities as "a heroic attack", boasting of the abduction of "over 30 hostages". No word from the university whether Arij Soufi, or Gordon Samoukovic, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the school who shared a post with an image of a shattered Israeli border fence with a man holding a Palestinian flag in his right hand flashing a peace symbol with his other, faced disciplinary action.

"Nothing here is unprovoked [he wrote directly following the atrocities]."

"75 years of oppression, apartheid, settler colonialism and systemic extermination creates radicalism."

"Free Palestine!"

Gordon Samoukovic

"I think Jews were extremely disappointed by the behaviour of McGill in general after October 7", stated Dr. Karl Weiss, infectious disease specialist at McGill, and among 400 medical professionals who formed the Quebec Jewish Medical Association, founded in November 2023, to counteract antisemitism flourishing in the field. McGill, according to Dr. Weiss, is no longer a safe learning environment for Canadian Jews. 

Montreal police stand between pro-Israeli counter-protesters and the pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus of McGill University in Montreal on Thursday May 2, 2024. Photo by John Mahoney /Montreal Gazette

"McGill does not define any particular form of social oppression or discrimination [e.g., racism, misogyny, bi/trans, homophobia]."

"Rather, our policies follow applicable human rights law, pursuant to which discrimination or harassment on the basis of a protected ground [which includes religious, ethnic, and/or cultural identity] is prohibited and subject to disciplinary measures."

"[Given] recent events on North American campuses and around the world, it is more important than ever that we stand with Jewish community members who are feeling especially vulnerable."

"[The administration has called out] antisemitic posters as well as intimidation emanating from the encampment ... a driving factor for the removal of the encampment."

McGill University statement