A Canadian student group called Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) on Monday launched a “revolutionary” summer camp at its “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the grounds of McGill University in Montreal.
Brochures for the camp depicted masked terrorists armed with rifles reading Communist literature.
SPHR established the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the McGill campus in April. The group has branches in several other Canadian universities.
The camp at McGill is a squat surrounded by barriers festooned with pro-Palestinian slogans. McGill administrators have been trying to persuade the students to break up the camp for months.
SPHR angrily rejected the university’s latest offer last week as “laughable” and made in “bad faith,” insisting that only the total reallocation of all school investments from Israel would suffice. The group also accused the university of “slandering” it with statements to the media.
“We stand firm against an administration that represses its students and funds genocide,” SPHR said last week.
Advertising for the group’s “Youth Summer Program,” which began on Monday, touted lessons in Arabic, political debates, and “revolutionary” classes in revised history. Jewish groups objected to the militant imagery used in these advertisements.
March of the Living, a Holocaust remembrance organization, said it was “appalled” by SPHR using “images of masked terrorists wrapped in keffiyehs, waving rifles of the type used by Hamas, which initiated the deadly attack on October 7, and Hezbollah, which is currently attacking northern Israel.”
“Such activities aimed at young people are unacceptable at an institution dedicated to the free sharing of ideas. This initiative could severely tarnish McGill University’s reputation, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious academic institutions in Canada, with a long history of research and scholarships,” March of the Living said.
Montreal resident Angele Orosz, a survivor of the Holocaust, said SPHR’s activities on the McGill campus were “frightening to me.”
“I came to Canada in 1973 to escape antisemitism, and now my grandchildren are suffering. Their school and synagogue were shot at, and now this at McGill. It’s unbearable. I am petrified of the students,” Orosz said.
“This is McGill, a university of the highest standard. It’s unbearable that my grandchildren have to go through what I escaped Hungary for. I am so frustrated and upset – I cannot find the words to express my feelings. Tears are flowing,” she added.
The UK Guardian noted the imagery chosen by SPHR to promote their summer camp appeared to be photos of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas taken in 1970. The book studied by the terrorists in the photo was Chairman Mao Zedong’s “Little Red Book” of Communism.
McGill President Deep Saini said the images used by SPHR were “extremely alarming.” He said law enforcement has been notified about the threatening pictures and language used by the pro-Palestinian student group.
“It should go without saying that imagery evoking violence is not a tool of peaceful expression or assembly. This worrying escalation is emblematic of the rising tensions on campuses across North America, where we have seen many incidents that go well beyond what universities are equipped to manage on their own,” Saini said.
Other members of the faculty seemed mildly perturbed by the use of terrorist imagery, but said there was nothing “objectionable” about the student group teaching its version of history and geopolitics on campus.
“Are you going to be outraged about a 50-year-old picture of a PLO guerrilla, or by hundreds of people in a refugee camp being slaughtered because the Israeli government doesn’t know how to negotiate and feels that they can kill any number of Palestinians to justify liberating a few hostages?” said associate professor of sociology Barry Eidlin.
The Guardian quoted Montreal police officials who said they “have no plans to end the pro-Palestinian encampment.”
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