Canadian Hamas Proxies' Entitlements

"[Some of the protesters' graffiti and signage] comes very close to, and occasionally crosses, the lines into discriminatory speech."

"None of this is peaceful protesting; it is designed to threaten, coerce and scare people. It is completely unacceptable. In each case, we have reported what has happened to the police and urged them to act."

"[The effigy (of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) was dressed in] a striped outfit that resembled a prisoner's uniform. That outfit also bore a close likeness to the uniform that millions of Jews and other marginalized peoples who suffered and died in concentration camps during the Second World War were forced to wear."

"[Montreal police] as we understand it, watched the events unfold without preventing them. This baffles us, and we have asked them to take every action possible under the law."

McGill University President Deep Saini

"Despite students voicing through the available institutional channels and so-called 'democratic' processes, we have been shut down at every opportunity."

"[McGill is prioritizing] donor interests and funding over the safety and collective will of its students."

"[The administration is unleashing] a propaganda and defamation campaign against all pro-Palestinian activism on their campus.

McGill chapter, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR)

A banner that said, 'injunction-proof' went up outside the McGill pro-Palestinian encampment on May 15, after a Quebec Superior Court judge rejected a second injunction request to remove the camp. (Jennifer Yoon/CBC)

 

Intensifying intimidation has been engaged in by supporters of a pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University's downtown campus. The university's president is experiencing difficulty attempting to determine why it is that police in Montreal have failed to step in, and make a stop to the ongoing harassment despite his having called upon them with the intention of spurring them to react to illegal, dangerous behaviour on the part of demonstrators, a substantial portion of whom are not students or anyone having a legitimate link to the university in any capacity.

 

The homes of school administrators, along with a senior official have been targeted by masked demonstrators. Masked protesters from the encampment harassed a senior university official. On the university campus itself profane graffiti proliferates. One McGill faculty team was faced with a table set at their offices with rotten food along with "a sign that named each team member with red handprints painted to look like blood", and a sign that read: "Food You Deserve".

An effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hung from the Roddick Gates of the school on Sunday, in full view of police officers who made no effort to intervene, simply watching the proceedings. The incident, considered a hate crime, was referred by two McGill students to Montreal police for an investigation. Of which nothing further was heard. When questioned, the response was that "Since an investigation is underway, we cannot comment so as not to interfere with its progress", the police responded.

University President Saini disclosed his administration's offer to the protesters; rejected, despite its similarity to proposals that have seen resolutions succeed at other universities. In the interim, McGill seeks a court injunction to dismantle the encampment, in place since April 27. Midweek, Universite du Quebec a Montreal announced that a similar camp would see their protest end following most demands having been met by the university.

Escalation, points out Mr. Saini, occurs irrespective of the efforts by his administration to engage with those students involved in the McGilll protest relating to demands for the university to divest from companies with links to Israel. Those negotiations have been difficult, stressed Mr. Saini. The SPHR responded with a statement of their own, essentially that their impression is that McGill is "pretending to be engaged in 'good faith" dialogue with protesters, yet the administration declines the suspension of legal and disciplinary actions.

Consequences for the protest groups' illegal, disruptive, hatefully slanderous, threatening behaviour is off the books as far as the protest organizers are concerned. McGill offered in its attempted negotiations of appeasement to:

• Examine 'divestment from companies whose revenues largely come from weapons';
• Increase 'McGill's links to scholars and institutions in Gaza and the West Bank, and provide urgent support to displaced students and scholars'
• Publicly list the companies in which it has equity holdings under $500,000, where that is permitted.

Somehow, it has failed to penetrate in the minds of academic administrators that dealing with irrational demands through appeasement rarely works when minds fixated on their views of reality as opposed to actual reality view attempts to defuse situations by offering concessions, just as occurs in the political arena, as capitulation, signalling to the protesters that issues they can 'win' are ripe for expansion; that if some of their demands can be met, there is no reason for them to accept a partial victory when they can demand all their demands be met. Taking a page out of the book of intransigent Palestinian negotiators for peace with Israel.

 

McGill University president Deep Saini has been calling on Montreal police to intervene against protesters at a pro-Palestinian encampment that went up on the university's campus one month ago. (CBC)

"We have met multiple times with the McGill students representing the encampment and presented offers in good faith These representatives walked away from the table at our last meeting."

"[The university has made an offer that aligns] with McGill's mission and principles of academic freedom, integrity, responsibility, equity and inclusiveness."

"[Calls for divestment based on geopolitical issues] serve to divide, not unite. Experience has taught us that maintaining a neutral institutional stance best supports [members of the McGill community] who hold varied political views, represent diverse identities, origins and beliefs, and ardently espouse various causes."

"In many other institutions, we've seen encampment leaders work with campus administration to find some common ground that represents positive change, despite disagreements."

"Yet, McGill's offer, which is comparable to that made by other universities [that] have reached resolutions, has been rejected by the encampment on our campus."

McGill University President Deep Saini

Around the world, students are calling on their universities to 'disclose and divest' their investments in companies and organizations linked to Israel.