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My University Failed to Stop Anti-Jewish Hate at a Recent ‘Week of Rage’ Demonstration
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 “ 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.
The post My University Failed to Stop Anti-Jewish Hate at a Recent ‘Week of Rage’ Demonstration first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.