Day five of pro-Palestinian encampment at McMaster University

Thursday marks day five of the encampment set up at the Burke Science building field at McMaster University.

McMaster University’s academic vice president says the university has received a “confrontational” letter from the group that set up the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. The university says they received the letter on Wednesday.

The pro-Palestinian group responded on Thursday, saying they’re open to talks whenever.

“We’re disappointed with the university’s characterization of our efforts. We have always been and we continue to be committed to dialogue. We do not feel that we have been confrontational nor do we believe escalation for the sake of escalation.”

Susan Tighe, McMaster provost and academic vice-president issued a statement Wednesday saying in part: “We heard from the solidarity for Palestinian human rights (SPHR) group demanding an immediate meeting with us…” “…while we acknowledge the importance of the issues they have raised, the tenor of today’s SPHR letter was confrontational.”

“The reason students came together to hold this encampment is that after seven months of conversation, there were no steps forthcoming. Our demands are for the university to disclose, divest, boycott and declare.”

This comes as protesters have been calling on universities across Canada to disclose ties with the Israeli government and divest from Israeli companies as the war rages on.

However, concerns have been raised about antisemitism on campuses in Ottawa.

Nati Pressman, founder of the Canadian Union of Jewish Students said, “There’s government funding going to these institutions that make us feel unsafe. And some of these institutions with Jewish students have been physically harmed by other students and have professors use the term academic freedom, wrongly.”

The group leading the encampment protest at McMaster University is addressing safety online, posting a set of guidelines on social media.

“We hear a lot of things going around about the safety of the camp so we wanted to address to everyone and for our campers ourselves that this place is as safe as possible.”

Organizers say there are about 40 tents and over 140 people at the encampment.

McMaster told CHCH News, “We share a mutual commitment with our students to meaningful and constructive dialogue. We recognize this is a difficult situation, and we will continue to keep our lines of communication open.”