{"id":15499,"date":"2023-11-06T22:15:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T03:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/?p=15499"},"modified":"2023-11-10T11:08:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T16:08:13","slug":"mcgill-global-demand-for-ceasefire-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/06\/mcgill-global-demand-for-ceasefire-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"MCGILL: GLOBAL DEMAND FOR CEASEFIRE IN GAZA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Please post & distribute.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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MCGILL TRIBUNE Nov. 2, 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n

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PROTESTORS DEMAND UNIVERSITY ACTION AND CEACEFIRE IN GAZA midst growing global movement for Palestine-021120231<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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https:\/\/mohawknationnews.com\/blog\/2023\/11\/02\/judge-overturns-mohawks-tobacco-conviction\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Content Warning: Mentions of violence, death, antisemitism, and Islamophobia<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Students flooded out of class at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 to join a growing crowd at the Y-intersection, many donning keffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags, and holding signs in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. The protest eventually moved to the James Administration Building, where members of Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR<\/a>) McGill blocked the entrance in an attempt to pressure the university to meet\u00a0their demands<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The protest was part of a\u00a0wider<\/a>\u00a0walkout<\/a>\u00a0movement<\/a>\u00a0across North America in solidarity with the people of Gaza. In Montreal, SPHR McGill,\u00a0SPHR Concordia<\/a>, Solidarit\u00e9 pour les droits humains des Palestiniennes et Palestiniens at\u00a0Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al<\/a>\u00a0(UdeM<\/a>) and\u00a0Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al\u00a0<\/a>(UQ\u00c0M<\/a>), and\u00a0Al Raya<\/a>\u00a0Dawson<\/a>\u00a0partnered to organize and promote the walkout. The organizations listed three demands on their social media platforms: \u201cDivestment from weapons\u2019 manufacturers which arm Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza,\u201d \u201can immediate end to Israel\u2019s siege on Gaza and U.S. and Canada funding for Israel,\u201d and \u201cto cease exchange programs with Israeli institutions and cut ties with current and future Zionist donors.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Oct. 7, Hamas staged an attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and resulted in more than 200 people being taken hostage, according to the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>. Israel has retaliated by launching an extensive bombing campaign, and now ground incursions, in Gaza. Estimates place the Palestinian death toll since Oct. 7 at over 9,000 and the number of people displaced at over 1.4 million, according to\u00a0Al Jazeera<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McGill has sent out a series of university-wide statements\u00a0following the Oct. 7 attack<\/a>, including\u00a0one<\/a>\u00a0that specifically mentions SPHR McGill, accusing the group of \u201ccelebrating violence\u201d on social media and demanding that the group stop using the McGill name. Other McGill communications have encouraged \u201clooking out for each other in sorrowful times\u201d and referenced the university\u2019s\u00a0I<\/a>nitiative against Islamophobia and Antisemitism (IAIAS)<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Protester Salma El emphasized the importance of everyone\u2014not just people from the Middle East\u2014demonstrating support for the Palestinian cause, and called for an immediate ceasefire.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am North African, so we\u2019re kind of brothers with Palestinians,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be seeing a genocide happening all over again and no one is talking about it just makes you lose hope in humanity, lose hope in leaders. And I just think that maybe, if anything would have happened to Ukrainians, maybe the world would have reacted another way. Just because it\u2019s Palestinians, no one is saying anything.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the crowd grew, SPHR McGill organizers started by leading chants and then delivered a land acknowledgement, drawing a parallel between settler colonialism in Canada and historic Palestine. Chants of \u201cFREE, FREE, FREE PALESTINE\u201d and \u201cVIVA, VIVA, PALESTINA\u201d echoed through the centre of campus as a large Palestinian flag was hung on a rolling whiteboard behind the speakers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the land acknowledgment, an SPHR McGill member reiterated the groups\u2019 demands and voiced support for the Kanien\u2019keh\u00e1:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers<\/a>)\u2014a group of Kanien\u2019keh\u00e1:ka women\u00a0resisting<\/a>\u00a0McGill\u2019s\u00a0New Vic project<\/a>\u00a0over concerns that there may be Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves on the site.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor of Arabic Literature Michelle Hartman and representatives from SPHR McGill,\u00a0Socialist Fightback<\/a>, and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM<\/a>) addressed the crowd. Organizers then called for the crowd to travel up from the Y-intersection to the steps of the Arts Building as the chants continued.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organizers led the crowd in cheering, \u201cRESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED, WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED\u201d and \u201cPALESTINE IS OUR DEMAND, NO PEACE ON STOLEN LAND,\u201d followed by chants in Arabic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mohawk Mothers\u2014who held a\u00a0teach-in<\/a>\u00a0on the archaeological work happening on the New Vic site from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the Leacock building\u2014then addressed protesters from the Arts Building steps, reaffirming their solidarity with the Palestinian cause.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the Mohawk Mothers\u2019 speeches, protest leaders continued their rallying calls before announcing that SPHR McGill members had blocked the entrance to the James Administration building, and the protest would be walking to meet them. Much of the crowd followed suit and relocated to the site of the sit-in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the James Administration building\u2014which hosts various key McGill decision and policy makers, including the Office of McGill\u2019s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Deep Saini\u2014the crowd swarmed to surround the small group that was occupying the area in front of the entrance, blocking office workers from going in or out. One protestor climbed the scaffolding, planting a Palestinian flag above where the student protesters sat.\u00a0The Tribune\u00a0<\/em>talked to an SPHR McGill spokesperson who was part of the sit-in while it was happening.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand is basically to end this bizarre and angry genocidal campaign that\u2019s being imposed on the people of Gaza right now, and also for our universities to divest from arms manufacturing companies, which are actively funding this regime,\u201d the SPHR representative said. \u201cMcGill-specific demands were, of course, to revoke the threats that were made about changing SPHR McGill\u2019s name [\u2026.] The threat of revoking our name, it came from a place of this university refusing to associate itself with a policy and student movement, but also to pretend that there is no segment of the McGill population which stands up for Palestine.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In front of the blocked entrance, various professors spoke out in support of the movement, including associate professor of political science William Roberts, associate professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism Lara Braitstein, professor of Islamic Studies Rula Abisaab, and Hartman.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration\u2019s response so far has been timid and cowardly. Generally, the McGill administration cares more about the appearance of civility than about the truth and more about the opinion of a few vocal donors and alumni than about the academic freedom of young scholars,\u201d Roberts wrote in an email statement to the\u00a0The Tribune<\/em>\u00a0after the protest. \u201cI don\u2019t expect that to change. Happily, the students don\u2019t need the administration\u2019s approval or assistance.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Palestinian student who wished to stay unnamed expressed the importance of those at McGill and in Canada speaking out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to show solidarity. Especially, you know, we have a lot of privilege here, where we have free speech, we should use it,\u201d they said. \u201cI would like to see the university send an email to us condemning what\u2019s happening to Gazans and also divest from all the money they\u2019re pouring into Israel\u2019s pockets.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The student, like Salma El, expressed disappointment in the lack of support they\u2019ve received from the school, pointing to the difference between how the university responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen everything was going on in Ukraine, they sent a very supportive email to Ukrainian students, they announced their support for Ukraine because it was, you know, being occupied, and they were against it,\u201d they said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s not that McGill doesn\u2019t want to be political, it can when it wants to.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a statement to\u00a0The Tribune<\/em>, McGill Media Relations Officer Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique Mazerolle expressed that \u201cMembers of the McGill community are free to express themselves and to associate within the bounds set by our university\u2019s Statement of Principles Concerning Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly, Charter of Students\u2019 Rights, and Policy on Academic Freedom.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFree association and free expression are rights we affirm. But these freedoms are not absolute, and the words we choose, and how we communicate them, matter. We are staunchly committed to building and sustaining a campus community where our diverse identities are honoured and celebrated, where we are safe to express our identities, and where we can all flourish,\u201d Mazerolle went on to write, echoing an Oct. 8 email sent out by Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell and Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Fabrice Labeau.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The university did not answer questions pertaining to divestment from companies that support the Israeli military or the state of Israel, McGill\u2019s Oct. 10 email demanding that SPHR McGill stop using the McGill name, or differences between how the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Israel-Palestine conflict have been handled.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While there was a large turnout, some students have expressed concerns about the\u00a0walkout. A portion of the Mohawk Mothers\u2019 speeches, which was posted on Instagram by SPHR McGill and later deleted, gained traction on X, formerly called Twitter, where users felt it appealed to antisemitic tropes that characterized Zionism as monetization, corporatization, and control.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kahnistensera stand in solidarity with all oppressed groups,\u201d the Mothers wrote in a statement to\u00a0The Tribune<\/em>\u00a0after the walkout. \u201cWhen seen through the lens of our own struggles for liberation, it is clear to us that the struggle in Palestine is the same as the struggle of all oppressed groups in the world including Jewish people. The common oppressor is European colonialism.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very detrimental to consider any criticism of Zionism as a criticism of Judaism,\u201d the group added. \u201cZionism is not Judaism: it is a modern nationalistic ideology weaponizing antisemitism to displace Jewish people and use them to get rid of Palestinians whom they dehumanize.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Others pointed to language throughout the protest that they felt lauded Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attack and criticized a pro-Palestine sign that depicted the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, instead of utilizing the flag of Israel or words.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAntisemites often find their way into anti-Zionist spaces. This goes the other way, too, by the way, there\u2019s anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia within right-wing Zionist movements. And it\u2019s on those Zionist movements to stamp that out, as well,\u201d a Jewish student who wished to remain anonymous said to\u00a0The Tribune\u00a0<\/em>after the walkout. \u201cYet, it is so black and white on campus,\u00a0 that [\u2026] there\u2019s seemingly no room for Jewish allies of ending the occupation, Jewish allies of the Palestinian cause\u2014those of us who want to see an end to violence.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

SPHR McGill did not respond to\u00a0The Tribune\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0request for comment before the publication deadline.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The protest continued until around 6 p.m., with the organizers distributing QR-code petitions in support of the people of Gaza.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Arawack brother Bob Marley states it clearly: “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everyhere is war. Everywhere is war. Me say war. That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of no nation, until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance then the color of his eyes. Me say war.’\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"Bob