Abstracts
Abstract
After the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023, McGill University in Montreal was one of many North American institutions where students set up encampments in what they described as solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Some have linked this phenomenon to prior student movements, such as those during the Vietnam War or Apartheid in South Africa. But the earliest demonstrations at McGill associated with the Arab-Israeli conflict occurred during Quebec’s Quiet Revolution (1960-1970), a time of significant upheaval in the province. This included unprecedented unrest at McGill: in 1969, ten thousand people marched in “Operation McGill Francais,” a rally that was as much about the French language as it was about anti-colonial revolution. Focusing on this incident, a turning point in Quebec’s anti-imperialist movement, this paper considers the origins of Quebec-Palestine solidarity and analyzes the phenomenon’s impact on McGill–including its Jewish students. Understanding this historical context can shed light on the recent sensitivity of the Israel / Palestine debate at McGill and offer insight into the wider historiography of political tensions on university campuses.
Keywords:
- liberation-nationalism,
- solidarity,
- student radicalism,
- anti-imperialism,
- antisemitism,
- Zionism,
- anti-Zionism
Résumé
Après le déclenchement de la guerre entre Israël et le Hamas en octobre 2023, l’université McGill à Montréal a été l’un des nombreux établissements nord-américains où les étudiant.es ont installé des campements en solidarité avec la cause palestinienne. Certain.es dressent un parallèle entre cette mobilisation et les mouvements étudiants passés, tel que ceux ayant eu lieu durant la guerre du Vietnam ou l’apartheid en Afrique du Sud. Cependant, les premières manifestations associées au conflit israélo-arabe à McGill ont commencé pendant la Révolution tranquille (1960-1970), une période d’effervescence au Québec. Cela inclut des soulèvements à McGill : en 1969, 10 000 personnes participèrent à l’Opération McGill Français, une manifestation qui portait autant sur la langue française que sur la révolution anticoloniale. En mettant l’accent sur ce tournant du mouvement anti-impérialiste québécois, cet article réexamine les origines de la solidarité Québec-Palestine, analysant son impact sur l’université McGill, y compris sur son corpus étudiant juif. La compréhension de ce contexte historique peut éclairer la récente sensibilité au débat sur Israël/Palestine dans cette université, tout en offrant un aperçu de l’historiographie plus large sur les tensions politiques sur les campus universitaires.
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Appendices
Biographical note
Jonah Fried is a researcher and communications specialist at B’nai Brith Canada. He studied history at McGill University. He served on McGill's student union and the McGill Tribune editorial board. An earlier version of this article received the Best Paper (First Place) Award during the Fourth Annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference in Israel Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2022. The views expressed in this paper are his alone and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer(s).