Last week, our comrades at Dawson College in Montreal organized a public discussion in the school cafeteria on the history of the Palestinian resistance for fellow students interested in organizing against the oppression of the Palestinian people. Before they could begin, however, they were confronted by campus security and told that they did not have the right to hold an event in support of Palestine at their college. All of our requests to reschedule the event to put up our posters have subsequently been refused.
While this censorship is shameful, it does not come as a surprise. Far from being a one-off event, the repression of the Palestinian solidarity movement has been ramping up exponentially over the past few weeks in Canada and across much of the West.
Here in Canada, the McGill University administration issued an injunction against the local Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights group and their “Policy against the Genocide in Palestine”. Concordia University activists have been repeatedly harassed by both security and by the Montreal police. At York University, the administration threatened to disband the university’s student union unless it fell into line on the question of Palestine. Similarly, activists in Britain were even arrested for distributing pamphlets on the Palestinian struggle!
The ruling class across the Western world is cracking down on anyone who dares to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli state. If we are to continue to fight on behalf of the Palestinian people here at home, and for any oppressed group in future who is targeted by the ruling class, we must respond to these repressive measures with determined resistance. To give in to ruling class intimidation would set a dangerous precedent and invite further aggression against activists and groups fighting against imperialism and oppression.
It is for this reason that communists of the International Marxist Tendency are organizing a rally against the repression of pro-Palestine activists this Wednesday at 1:00 p.m outside Dawson College in Montreal. If you stand for the Palestinian cause and want to resist the repression of our government at home, then join us.
