McMaster University suspended the school’s Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights organization pending an investigation into the club, and the founder of the Brock club has spoken up in response.
Across the world, there has been a growing movement to get academic institutions to divest from companies with ties to Israel in response to the staggering violence in Gaza. At the time of writing, more than 50,800 Palestinians are confirmed dead and over 115,600 are wounded, with thousands more missing under the rubble.
Several U.S. colleges including Brandeis University, Columbia University and The George Washington University have had many problems with SPHR’s American equivalent, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for similar misconduct.
The SPHR group and its delegates have hosted multiple anti-Israel rallies on several campuses, especially since the October 2023 massacre.
Jerusalem Post reporter Gil Troy visited Jewish schools in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal to speak with students about how they were being affected by the rise of antisemitism due to Israel’s actions. He spoke in Jewish day schools to sixth and twelfth graders, on campus and in Hillels. “No Jewish professor is okay, no Jewish student is okay, we’re not okay,” said one professor. Troy heard of teachers imposing assignments in class about how “Israelis are savages” and of history teachers “claiming that just as racist White women invented stories about Blacks raping them in America’s South, Jewish women made up stories about Palestinians raping them on October 7.” Many students in elementary schools reported enduring Nazi jokes and constant hatred.
Montreal’s McGill University has especially seen rising tensions on their campus. Shortly after the Israel-Hamas war began, McGill asked their SPHR branch to stop using the school’s name over posts on social media that described the terror group’s attack against Israel as “heroic.”
A McGill spokesperson denounced the celebration of acts of terror and violence and said their SPHR branch operates independently from McGill. McGill SPHR accused the university of being “ complicit in upholding the apartheid regime of Israel.” During a protest on July 7, 2024, tear gas was used on a crowd of pro-Palestinian activists for breaking and entering as well as interfering with police officers. Montreal police also said protestors threw objects and vandalized the exterior of the administration building.
McMaster University has seen similarly rising tensions, specifically when a pro-Palestinian encampment was set up on May 5, 2024 on university property. Students demanded the university divest from companies they say have ties to Israel and the conflict in Gaza. The student-led encampment lasted two-and-a-half weeks before the school and protestors “agreed on terms.”
McMaster agreed to new commitments including the creation of an open process to allow questions about the school’s investments and making up to $200,000 available to support qualified Palestinian academics and students under the school’s Scholars-at-Risk Program and Students-at-Risk Bursary.
On August 26, 2024, three McMaster students with connections to the university’s SPHR brank were banned from campus activities after they participated in a pro-Palestinian protest earlier in the year. The university said it reserved the right to ban people who pose a “risk,” but the Canadian Union of Public Employees said they will “fight for the right to protest” and expect to see the three students, all elected leaders with the union, back on campus soon. If they are found on the grounds they are currently banned from, policy states “they will be subject to a charge by Security Services under the Trespass to Property Act.”
In January 2025, McMaster University in Hamilton suspended the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) group pending an investigation “into their repeated misconduct.”
The group is accused of antisemitic behaviour and incitement on the campus, which includes glorifying the horrors of October 7.
Brock University has officially taken a neutral stance on the Palestine-Israel conflict. In November of last year, an event titled “Understanding the Palestinian Struggle” was shut down by Brock due to worries of spreading antisemitism brought to light by the club Chabad.
The founder and club executive of SPHR at Brock and BUSU Board Member Mohiz Imitiaz contacted The Brock Press to share his thoughts.
Imitiaz told The Brock Press that Islamic Relief Brock, a student-led charity organization rooted in compassion and justice, stands in solidarity with SPHR and all those who advocate for Palestinian human rights.
“The suspension of SPHR at McMaster is not just an attack on a student group,” said Imitiaz. “It is a threat to every organization that seeks to do good. We call for the protection of all groups working toward justice for the oppressed and acting in defence of human rights everywhere, in both word and action.”
Imitiaz also wanted to draw attention to some articles published decades ago in The Brock Press to show BUSU’s support and advocacy for student actions, as well as the ongoing conversation on Palestinian human rights. These are the ones Imitiaz listed:
In 1969, BUSU joined the country-wide protest regarding the war in Vietnam.
- In 1972, BUSU planned to boycott Kraft products, and about 400 students from across Ontario marched on the Ontario Legislature Building on Nov. 21 to protest the hike in tuition prices.
- In 1973, in an unprecedented show of support, more than 1,300 Brock students attended a student union meeting on January 17 to vote in support of a university-wide moratorium. This issue shows a photo of “packed students union representing student political will for advocacy.”
- In 1980, BUSU President Mike O’Bright represented Brock at the Queen’s Park underfunding protest with 3,000 students.
- In 1982, a Palestinian information officer spoke to local press at Brock University about the Israel and Palestine conflict.
- In 1988, BUSU paid for students’ bus ride to Queen’s Park to protest underfunding.
Imitiaz also supplied this statement from “Gabriel Spokesperson for 905,” which may be in reference to the group 905palestine, a Niagara Palestine Coalition.
McMaster has taken the side of scholasticide and oppression. Suppressing Palestinian systems of knowledge and organizing on one hand but then offering money on the other is a blatant disregard for academic norms and principles. Academic institutions are not banks or trading guilds. We are institutions of knowledge. If an institution of knowledge is unable to cut ties with supremacist ideologies — like Zionism — that aim to eliminate peoples and systems of knowledge, they doom themselves to stagnation and irrelevance. You can’t claim to be building education if you tacitly support its destruction.
It is impossible for Brock to be neutral in this situation. Either this institution condemns the scholasticide (destruction in whole or in part the educational system) in Palestine or, by its silence, accepts that it’s okay to destroy universities. Either it condemns the suppression of Palestine solidarity or, by its silence, attempts to profit from the chilling effect it has caused. “Attempts” being the key word here. The students will not be silenced, and if they aren’t given “proper channels,” then the institutions in question are fully responsible for the natural consequences of oppression.
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The suspension of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) group at McMaster University has sparked broader conversations about academic freedom, student activism, and the limits of protest on university campuses. While the university cited repeated misconduct and antisemitic rhetoric as grounds for the suspension, supporters argue that such actions suppress advocacy for Palestinian human rights and academic expression.
Figures like Mohiz Imitiaz and groups such as 905palestine view the suspension as part of a larger trend of silencing pro-Palestinian voices under the guise of maintaining campus safety. They point to a long history of student activism at institutions like Brock to emphasize the importance of continuing that legacy today.
As the investigation into SPHR at McMaster unfolds, it highlights the ongoing tension between ensuring respectful discourse and preserving the right to protest. With universities across Canada grappling with similar issues, the outcome at McMaster could set a precedent for how institutions respond to political activism amid global conflict.