The pro-Palestinian student organization Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) announced it will be holding a youth summer camp at Canada’s McGill University in Montreal.
The Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which has been operating on campus since April, six months after the war in Gaza broke out on October 7, will offer the city's youth physical activities, Arabic language lessons, cultural crafts, political debates and "revolutionary" history classes. The university, located in the Quebec province’s capital, is a public institution funded by the public.
The March of the Living international organization based in Montreal strongly condemned the camp set to take place on the university campus. The organization said in a statement it was "appalled by the announcement of the camp, whose program includes images of masked terrorists wrapped in keffiyehs, waving rifles of the type used by Hamas, which initiated the deadly attack on October 7, and Hezbollah, which is currently attacking northern Israel."
The organization added: "Such activities aimed at young people are unacceptable at an institution dedicated to the free sharing of ideas. This initiative could severely tarnish McGill University’s reputation, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious academic institutions in Canada, with a long history of research and scholarships."
Holocaust survivor Angele Orosz, a Montreal resident, said at the city's Holocaust Museum: "What is happening today at McGill is so frightening for me. I was born in December 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau. I came to Canada in 1973 to escape antisemitism, and now my grandchildren are suffering. Their school and synagogue were shot at, and now this at McGill. It's unbearable. I am petrified of the students.”
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Pro-Palestinian rally in Canada
(Photo: Reuters / HANDOUT / almas_kenana via Instagram)
She added: “This is McGill, a university of the highest standard. It's unbearable that my grandchildren have to go through what I escaped Hungary for. I am so frustrated and upset – I cannot find the words to express my feelings. Tears are flowing.”
March of the Living Chairman Shmuel Rosenman and Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, the organization's president, said in a statement: "Education for young people should never encourage the use of violence. When actions by students on campus, promoted by social media companies, make Holocaust survivors fear setting foot on campus and fear for the future of their grandchildren – it is clear that both the university and social media organizations have lost their way. Now it is high time to find their way back.”