McMaster seeks ‘respectful’ tone with campus protesters
McMaster University says it is willing to meet with pro-Palestinian student protesters encamped on campus to discuss their concerns, provided those conversations are “respectful.”
Susan Tighe, the university’s provost and academic vice-president, issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon saying the school received a letter from Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) demanding an immediate meeting.
She said a meeting would happen, but rejected the tone of the group’s demand.
Tighe wrote the issues raised by the students are important, but “the tenor of today’s SPHR letter was confrontational.”
“When we do meet, we need any discussion to be respectful and collegial as conversations have been in the past,” wrote Tighe, citing at least 10 “in-depth” meetings between the students and senior McMaster administrators since October.
Neither the university nor the protesters have released the letter to The Spectator.
However, protesters have used some inflammatory language about the university. In a statement posted to the SPHR Instagram page Tuesday, the protesters accused the university of playing a role in war crimes.
“Someone should have time to consider McMaster’s complicity in genocide and show enough leadership to fulfil the university’s moral and legal obligations,” the post reads.
Protest encampments have gone up at several Canadian universities in the last two weeks, including the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, the University of British Columbia and McMaster. The camps, which have followed similar protests in the United States, are the latest move by protesters opposed to Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza. The attacks followed an invasion in Israel by Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, that saw the murder of more than a thousand people and the kidnapping of hundreds of others.
Israel’s counteroffensive, which is now its in sixth month, has resulted in the death of tens of thousands of people and has drawn international condemnation.
Talks between Hamas and the Israeli government broke down this week and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the attacks.
The protesters are demanding these universities boycott Israeli academic institutions and divest themselves of any financial interests in the country as a means of applying more pressure on the Netanyahu government.
The McMaster encampment was set up over the weekend, occupying a cordoned-off quadrant of a park outside McMaster University’s Burke Science Building, which the protesters are now calling “the People’s Field for Palestine” in social media statements.
Around 150 people have joined the encampment, said protest spokesperson Caleb Smolenaars, a thirdyear labour studies student at McMaster.
The group is demanding McMaster end its academic relationships with two Israeli universities.
The protesters are also demanding the university conduct an audit to disclose “financial involvement in corporations that profit from or participate in human rights violations.”
The encampment has been peaceful since it was set up and Tighe has said on-campus activities have not been disrupted.
Associate vice-president and dean of students Sean Van Koughnett said in an email Tuesday that they “appreciate the overall approach organizers have taken to the health and safety of the encampment.”
However, some Jewish students said the encampment is making them uneasy.
“Jewish students are really feeling targeted,” said Jay Solomon, spokesperson for Jewish student group Hillel Ontario. “They’re being held responsible collectively for a conflict a thousand kilometres away.”
The encampments are “creating a hateful environment” and making students feel “unwelcome and unsafe” on campus, Solomon said.
The McMaster encampment was set up over the weekend, occupying a cordoned-off quadrant of a park outside McMaster University’s Burke Science Building