'Revolutionary youth summer program' to turn students into Gaza activists at McGill University

At McGill University, the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) group has announced that it will be making a "revolutionary youth summer program" at its Gaza encampment. It used men holding machine guns to advertise for the program.

In a post on social media, the group stated, “We pledge to educate the youth of Montreal and redefine McGill’s ‘elite’ [institutional] legacy by [transforming] its space into one of revolutionary education." 

"The daily schedule will include physical activity, Arabic language instruction, cultural crafts, political discussions, historical and revolutionary lessons," the post added. The program will run in McGill's lower field, which has been taken over by the Gaza camp activists since April." Accompanying the announcement for the youth camp was an image of men wearing keffiyehs and clutching machine-guns.  

The program will apparently run from 4 pm to 6 pm every day at the end of June and will emphasize the activism in support of Palestinian terror group Hamas. From June 24 to June 28, the program portion will be called "The Ongoing Nabka," in reference to the 1948 establishment of Israel. After the establishment of the nation, Arabs attacked Israel en masse. The new nation defended itself and the Arab militants loss. The so-called Nakba is a reference to their attack on Israel and subsequent loss, in which the Arab groups lost more land to the new country.

Two other weeks in the program will include “Different Fronts of the Movement” from July 1 to July 5 and "Media after October 7th" during the days of July 8-12.  

Classes at the Gaza camp for week one will include, “The Beginning of Resistance,” “Pan-Arabism,” “The PLO: From Al Karameh to Oslo,” “Resistance against Colonialism in the ‘80s,” and “Modern Resistance,” according to the activist organization and can be signed up for on a Google forum in from their social media bio.  

In response to the "youth summer program", the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Federation (CJA) issued a joint statement telling McGill to "defund SPHR immediately.” 

“SPHR is promoting images of terrorist propaganda with weapons as a part of a summer camp program at the McGill encampment. This cannot be in our city,” CJA wrote.  

"We are calling on McGill University to defund SPHR immediately. We are calling on McGill to stop turning a blind eye to the hate & toxicity fueling the illegal encampment & take action. This cannot be in our city. This cannot be at McGill. The tolerance for hate & antisemitism in our city is enough. Mayor Plante & the SPVM must act now," the statement added.  

McGill is increasing security protocols near the Gaza camp on the campus. In a statement to the National Post on the topic, Deep Saini, McGill’s president and vice-chancellor, said that the post with the terrorist imagery was “extremely alarming.” 

“It should go without saying that imagery evoking violence is not a tool of peaceful expression or assembly. This worrying escalation is emblematic of the rising tensions on campuses across North America, where we have seen many incidents that go well beyond what universities are equipped to manage on their own," Saini added.