Anti-Israel summer programming hosted at McGill University encampment

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The Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, which describes itself as a student-led group at McGill University, has announced it will be hosting a “revolutionary youth summer program.”

In a post on Instagram, the group said the program will begin on Monday, with the first week focused on “The History of Palestinian Resistance.”

“We pledge to educate the youth of montreal and redefine McGill’s ‘elite’ (institutional) legacy by (transforming) its space into one of revolutionary education,” notes the post, which is accompanied by an image of men wearing keffiyehs and clutching machine-guns.

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The program will be held at McGill’s lower field, according to the post, which has been home to the encampment since late April.

“The daily schedule will include physical activity, Arabic language instruction, cultural crafts, political discussions, historical and revolutionary lessons,” it adds.

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The program will run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. every day next week with classes that will seemingly emphasize resistance movements that oppose Israel’s policies and existence, as well as Western influence in Arab countries. They include “The Beginning of Resistance,” “Pan-Arabism,” “The PLO: From Al Karameh to Oslo,” “Islamic Resistance,” and “Axis of Resistance,” according to SPHR.

Semester one of the program will then continue from June 24 to June 28, with the a week of programming under the title “The Ongoing Nakba,” which is a reference to 1948, the establishment of Israel and the displacement of Palestinians.

The remaining two weeks of the program, scheduled from July 1 to July 5 and July 8 to July 12, are titled “Different Fronts of the Movement” and “Media after October 7th.”

Responding to the post, Federation CJA, a Montreal-based Jewish community organization, called on McGill “to immediately end funding for SPHR.”

“SPHR is promoting terrorist propaganda images as part of a summer camp program the group plans to hold at the McGill encampment. This cannot happen in our city,” it posted on X.

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The post also drew condemnation from Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada.

“This is appalling,” said Henry Topas, the Quebec regional director for the organization. “Look at how they have moved the goalposts. First, they started holding demonstrations every week, despite their tendency to spout violent and antisemitic slogans. Then, they illegally occupied the campus, bullied Jewish students, harassed McGill administrators at their homes, and broke into university buildings.

“Now, we have a ‘summer camp’ openly being advertised with images of masked men holding weapons. Is McGill going to allow its campus to be used to brainwash youths into thinking that terrorism is acceptable?”

B’nai Brith Canada also noted the purported classes that will be available, including “Axis of Resistance,” which it called “an apparent reference to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s network of proxies dedicated to destroying Israel and the United States.”

“The situation at McGill is well out of control and has been for some time,” said Richard Robertson, the organization’s director of research and advocacy. “We call on McGill and the local authorities to ensure that the university’s property is not used as a forum to incite violence against Israel and Jews.

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“The plan for this so-called program further disproves the myth that these illegal encampments are about democracy and peaceful protest. They are, in fact, a hypocritical assault on Canadian values and Western norms as a whole.”

In a statement to National Post, Deep Saini, McGill’s president and vice-chancellor called the social media post, including the imagery used, “extremely alarming.”

“It has attracted international media attention, and many in our community have understandably reached out to express grave concerns – concerns that I share.

“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 added that McGill has contacted municipal, provincial and federal public safety authorities, “flagging this social media post and other recent activities as matters of national security, and requesting all appropriate interventions to ensure the safety of our community.

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“I want to emphasize that this is only the latest escalation in SPHR’s longstanding strategy of intimidation and fear. This is the same group that described the October 7 Hamas assault and taking of hostages as ‘heroic.’ SPHR has invoked offensive antisemitic language and imagery, and claimed responsibility for the harassment of McGill community members. Their incendiary rhetoric and tactics seek to intimidate and destabilize our community.”

McGill is also increasing its security patrols near the encampment and elsewhere on campus, according to the statement, as well as pursing legal action to bar SPHR from using the McGill name on social media platforms and elsewhere.

“We have called upon the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the independent student union that includes all undergraduate students as members and lists SPHR as an affiliated ‘club,’ to publicly condemn this ‘summer program,’ sever their relationship with SPHR, cease any disbursement of funds to them, and affirm SSMU’s commitment to the well-being and success of McGill students of all identities, beliefs, and lived experiences. We have indicated that, should SSMU fail to take these steps, this will be interpreted as their endorsement of SPHR’s activities.”

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Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, vice president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, also responded on X.

“Terrorist summer camp for children, taking place at Montreal’s McGill University. Wish this was some kind of joke. Where are our political leaders???,” she posted.

David Jacobs, president of the Ontario Association of Radiologists, questioned the legality of the summer camp promotion.

“The McGill encampment is running a summer camp and is using masked men with machine guns to advertise the program,” he posted. “I’m pretty sure this breaks about half a dozen laws, but ignoring the justice system seems to be in fashion these days.”

Earlier this week, SPHR rebuffed an offer from McGill after it proposed to review its investments in weapons manufacturers and grant amnesty to protesting students. McGill said the offer included a review of direct equity investments in entities that earn most of their revenues from the production of military weapons, per Montreal Gazette.

SPHR called the offer “laughable” and “an immaterial response to our demands and a blatant misconstrual of the negotiation process.”

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“Despite intimidation and abuse of power, our demand remains straightforward: we seek the immediate reallocation of funds from investments in unethical companies to ethical ones,” SPHR said in a statement.

McGill is not the only institution that appears to be hosting “summer programming.”

In the Instagram post, SPHR McGill also tagged SPHR Concordia University and National Students for Justice in Palestine, which says it supports more than 300 SJP chapters across the country.

In a separate Instagram post, National SJP called for students to register “NSJP Summer School.”

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“In the aftermath of the most impactful years of Palestine student organizing in decades, National Students for Justice in Palestine invites student organizers and movement partners to deepen our understanding of our current political moment and develop our organizational and leadership skills, with the aim of entrenching the frameworks necessary to sustain and grow the Student Intifada in the coming academic year,” the post reads.

“Who is the Revolution? We are the Revolution,” it adds.

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