McMaster University suspends pro-Palestinian student group

“Let us be clear, the institutional violence the administration imposes on its students is the sole cause for all repressions against them,” SPHR said in a statement on Instagram. 

By SHIR PERETS FEBRUARY 25, 2025 04:14

SIGNS ARE displayed in front of Deering Meadow, at an encampment of pro-Palestinian activists at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in April 2024. (photo credit: REUTERS/Nate Swanson)

McMaster University, located in Ontario, Canada, suspended the anti-Israel group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) earlier this month, and SPHR is currently being investigated.

Slamming the university, SPHR wrote in an Instagram statement, “Let us be clear, the institutional violence the administration imposes on its students is the sole cause for all repressions against them."

“May this be a lesson that resistance and solidarity cannot and will not be stifled—in Gaza, in Jenin, or on our own campus," the group added.

McMaster’s Hillel chapter released a statement applauding the university for the decision to suspend the group and underscoring SPHR’s history of engaging in antisemitic behavior.

A spokesperson for the university told The Jerusalem Post that details could not be shared in response to the suspension to ensure the integrity of the investigation, which is going through the “normal processes.”

A COALITION of pro-Palestinian students at the University of Michigan and other supporters protest in the street, in Dearborn, last May. Last weekend, a student was attacked off campus for answering ‘yes’ in response to the question ‘are you Jewish?’ (credit: REBECCA COOK/REUTERS)

Additional SPHR branches

The SPHR group and its proxies have hosted multiple anti-Israel rallies on several campuses, especially since the October 7 massacre in 2023. 

Shortly after Israel's war with Hamas began, Montreal's McGill University asked their SPHR branch to stop using the school’s name over posts on social media that described the terror group's attack against Israel as “heroic.”

 “McGill University denounces these communications; the celebration of acts of terror and violence is completely antithetical to McGill’s fundamental values,” said Michel Proulx, a spokesman for the university, who added that the group operated “wholly independent from McGill.”