Hillel McMaster, the university’s Jewish student group, says that the agreement that McMaster made with protestors will only “embolden” the group that held the campus hostage. Pictured: McMaster encampment. Photo Credit: HDLC/X.
Pro-Palestine protesters have been occupying the grounds of post-secondary institutions over the past number of weeks, with groups making various demands.
Hamilton’s McMaster University was no exception, with protesters setting up in front of the Burke Science Building on May 5, 2024, and staying there for a number of weeks.
When a similar encampment was set up at the University of Toronto, an injunction was sought, and successfully granted, to have the protesters removed.
However, in the case of McMaster, the university bent to protesters’ demands.
The protest was organized by a group called Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McMaster.
The group posted their demands online, saying that they wanted McMaster University to disclose their investment in various companies that they believe are pro-Israel.
SPHR also wanted McMaster to “terminate all exchange programs and partnerships with Israeli academic institutions” and with their list of companies.
They also demanded that the university release a statement saying that Israel is committing “genocide.”
On May 16, 2024, more than 11 days into the encampment, McMaster University released a statement which expressed some of the institution’s stances.
The statement said that McMaster will “maintain the right of faculty members to pursue their academic and research interests” and that students “will continue to have the right” to pursue work terms, co-op programs, and learning opportunities “in alignment with their program requirements.”
It also said that the university’s total investment pool “is not funded through tuition” and that the companies in SPHR’s divestment list make up “less than one-tenth of one per cent” of that pool.
Further on in the statement, the university says that they have “provided support for more than 30 events hosted by SPHR over the past academic year,” in commitment to freedom of expression at the university.
However, McMaster also made several concessions, saying that, “once the encampment ends,” they would arrange a meeting with the university’s Chief Financial Officer to share more information on investments and create a new process for groups or individuals to share their concerns about investment.
SPHR released a strong statement in response, saying that the university is “complicit in genocide” and that “McMaster’s conditional ‘offer’ is blind to the relentless efforts of their students and to the true nature of our demands.”
The encampment then continued until May 24, when McMaster made even more concessions to the group.
A statement from the university announced that the encampment would end due to “productive conversations.”
As a result, McMaster’s International Strategy Advisory Committee (ISAC) will now be developing a framework for “human rights considerations in international agreements,” the university is personally organizing a meeting between SPHR and the university’s Chief Financial Officer and be invited to made a “presentation on divestment to the Board of Governors” in October 2024.
The university will also be reviewing their investment policies and is opening a process allowing any McMaster community member to raise concerns about investments.
The university is also committing to add a “male Muslim Palestinian psychotherapist by the beginning of Fall 2024” and will be publishing various stories about the impact that the Israel-Hamas war has had on Palestinian students.
In order to end the encampment, the university bent to the protesters’ key demands.
Meanwhile, Hillel McMaster, the university’s Jewish student group, says that the agreement that McMaster made with SPHR will only “embolden” the group that held the campus hostage.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
