A pro-Israel counter-protest in response to the student-led encampment at McGill University’s downtown Montreal campus is underway alongside a heightened police presence strategically positioned to keep the two sides away from each other.
The counter-protest began around noon. Montreal police officers on bicycles, dressed in riot gear, are blocking each side of the Roddick Gates at the campus entrance.
The encampment, which has now been in place for six days, calls for the university’s divestment from companies that have business ties with Israel. The encampment is one of many protests taking place on university campuses across North America that are in response to the growing death toll in the Gaza Strip.
Since Israel launched its military offensive in the Palestinian enclave last October, more than 34,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Israel’s ongoing operation is in response to a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel which killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
The two protests appeared to try and drown each other out, with chanting and drumming on the encampment side and loud, upbeat music from the pro-Israel side.
The pro-Israel protesters showed up to McGill’s campus waving Israeli flags and holding signs saying “Release the hostages” and “Bring them home now.”
They played music in Hebrew and set up a large screen in front of the campus, where they broadcast interviews from women who said they had experienced sexual violence at the hands of Hamas.
Just before noon Thursday, pro-Palestinian protesters lined up along the fence surrounding their encampment, chanting: “Why are you in riot gear? There is no violence here.”
For several days, McGill has been attempting to pressure protesters into dismantling the encampment. Earlier this week, the university requested “police assistance” and lent its name to a provisional court injunction request to force them to leave.
Wednesday, that request was rejected by Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Masse, who said the plaintiffs — two McGill students — failed to show that the encampment caused them irreparable harm.
In her ruling, Masse wrote that if the injunction request were granted and protesters were removed, their “freedom of expression and to gather peacefully would be affected significantly.”
The pro-Palestinian encampment on McGill’s campus is on its sixth day. A counter-protest is scheduled for May 2, 2024.
- This week, CBC’s Cross Country Checkup wants to know: Are protests an effective way to spark change? How are you resolving disputes in your own life around the Israel-Hamas conflict? Fill out the details on this form and have your say.