Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Photo: Concordia University / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/concordiauniversity/5279916243)

Jewish students worldwide were bracing themselves for what would happen on campuses on October 7, 2024 — a year after Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas waged the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Since the start of the war, police in Montreal have reported 325 demonstrations in connection with the conflict, and more than 288 possible hate crimes against Jewish Québécois over the last year, resulting in 41 arrests.

Starting on this past October 7, Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR) Concordia and other anti-Israel protest groups on campus planned to show “administrations why they must divest and end their complicity in the genocide in Gaza,” during their so-called “Week of Rage.”

Based on SPHR Concordia’s prior actions — such as repeatedly vandalizing school buildings with antisemitic hate, forcing the Concordia University Sir George Williams Campus (SGW) campus into lockdown by disrupting and blocking classes during their “National Day of Action,” and  threateningly encircling a Jewish person at one of their protests, I and my peers had valid concerns regarding our safety.

SPHR’s recent history also includes rioting at Jewish and Israeli clubs’ tables on campus, repeatedly calling for an “Intifada,” and stating that the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel was an act of justifiable “resistance.”

In response, Jewish Concordia students, along with a well known pro-Israel student group, StartUp Nation Montreal, and Hillel Concordia demanded that the school’s administration “uphold its responsibility to ensure [students’] safety and security.”

Though the school did not respond immediately, a Quebec judge barred certain pro-Palestinian groups and activists from blocking access to any part of Concordia, or attempting to disrupt classes five days before the October 7 anniversary.

The following day, a message penned by two members of the school administration’s leadership team outlined how exactly the university would be “[taking] steps to support a climate of safety and respect on campus.”

Of course, neither act curtailed any of the planned anti-Israel antics.

On October 7, 2024, while numerous Jewish organizations on campus held a 1,000 person vigil for the victims and the current captives still held by Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups, anti-Israel protestors were busy barging through police barriers, vandalizing a construction site for a new education building known to be funded by “Zionists,” and flooding the streets with protestors shouting “the student intifada lives on,” while SPHR and its partners declared their desire to “commemorate the historic breach of the colonial border wall and a year of Palestine’s historic resistance.”

Anti-Israel protestors were also seen “barging through a metal fence, which was erected by Montreal police, after McGill University announced that access to campus would be restricted to students, faculty and essential visitors from Oct. 5 to Oct. 11.”

A video posted on X showed protestors attacking the Sylvan Adam’s Sports Science Institute (SASSI) which hopes to establish a permanent partnership with Tel-Aviv University,” stating that, “the site was met with shattered glass and paint, affirming that there will be no peace so long as McGill continues to partner with institutions complicit in genocide.”

According to local reporting, “hundreds of people still protesting broke into small groups, dispersing in all directions,” which prompted the authorities to dispatch “an army of more than 80 SPVM officers, over a dozen Sûreté du Québec (SQ) officers and campus security.”

Since then, Montreal has had multiple dramatic expressions of anti-Israel antisemitism that have continued to veer into outright politically motivated violence. We continue to see countless horrific incidents, such as a Second Cup franchisee at the Jewish General Hospital calling for the final solution, and performing the Nazi salute, as well as cars being lit ablaze by rioters at an anti-NATO protest.

How loud must we shout before politicians enact laws restricting this behavior, and school administrators better enforce the code of conduct policies at their universities?

Jacqueline Snidman-Stren is a student at Concordia University and a 2024-2025 CAMERA Fellow.