A campus. A fence | Middle East, the eternal conflict

In 1924, Lady Amy Redpath Roddick made a donation to McGill University. She had the Greek-inspired gate built in honor of her late husband, which still opens the way to the McGill campus for passers-by today. But not on this day of demonstration. No. Today, very exceptionally, the fence is resolutely closed.

And, as if the old wrought iron fence installed on the edge of the campus at the end of the 19th century had called for help, numerous police officers, who stood straight and impassive, made with their bodies another impassable barrier.

A university employee calls out to me. I’ve been working at McGill for years and I’ve never seen the doors closed. Never.”,”text”:”I’ve been working at McGill for over 20 years and I’ve never seen the doors closed. Never.”}}”>I’ve been working at McGill for over 20 years and I’ve never seen the doors closed. Never. He enters, annoyed, into a pavilion. He repeats, as if to himself: Never seen that.

On Sherbrooke Street, pro-Israeli demonstrators installed a giant screen like in parks in the summer when open-air cinemas are organized. The installation was paid for by private donations.

Images of the massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 play in a loop. Some corpses. A woman who recounts the rape she suffered. Freed hostages who tell their stories. This is the film that the students who organized this counter-demonstration chose to show, so that we remember how the war in Gaza began.

Across the street, around the pro-Palestinian encampment set up last Saturday on the McGill campus, the word genocide is written everywhere. McGill complicit in the genocide in Gaza, Canada complicit in the genocide, I support the students who fight the genocide, The genocide must stop… These are some examples of slogans written on the posters of pro-Palestinian protesters that I took note of.

A genocide? There is no genocide! There is a massacre. And unfortunately, it is necessary to eradicate Islamist terrorists. Israel had no choiceXavier Parizé, 78, told me, surrounded by Israeli flags.

No, it’s not genocidealso affirms Katya Melcuk, 57 years old, pediatrician by profession. If Israel wanted genocide, it could have done it a long time ago. He could do it now with planes too. But no. Israel chose to sacrifice young soldiers to wage war rather than simply bombing the people of Gaza. They are trying to do their best so that there are as few civilian casualties as possible. This is a catastrophe, but we must remember that it was not Israel who started it.

According to Israeli government data, between October 7 and April 8, 2024, the conflict left 1,200 dead and 5,431 injured on the Israeli side. According to Palestine Red Crescent Societya member organization of the International Red Cross, the war reportedly left 33,207 Palestinians in Gaza dead and 75,933 injured between October and April.

Dr. Melcuk also asserts that Jewish settlers who settle on Palestinian land are entitled to do so. According to United Nations figures, 700,000 people live in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. She doesn’t like the expression either occupied territories as used by theUN in a resolution dating from 1967.

years. There are no occupied territories. This is a brainwashed concept. We repeat and repeat “occupied territories” and people ended up believing that it was true”,”text”:”If you read the Bible, you will understand that it has been a Jewish land for over 3000 years . There are no occupied territories. This is a brainwashed concept. We repeat and repeat “occupied territories” and people ended up believing that it was true”}}”>If you read the Bible, you will understand that it has been a Jewish land for over 3000 years. There are no occupied territories. This is a brainwashed concept. We repeat and repeat “occupied territories” and people ended up believing that it was trueshe believes.

Her father, Igor Melcuk, a retired professor of linguistics at the University of Montreal, cuts it. He absolutely means this: Occupied means a country that is occupied by another state, but which state is occupied by Israel? Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians.

Joshua Poupko is an Orthodox rabbi who has led Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron Synagogue in Montreal since 1986 and is co-chair of the Canadian Rabbinical Caucus of the Center for Israel. Israel has been generous in its offers to the Palestinians. The Palestinians’ worst enemy is Hamas. The solution is to better educate Gazans because we teach children to hate the Israelis there.he maintains.

Steve Sebag is a financial advisor, but above all he is president of the board of directors of the CJA federation, an organization dedicated to defending the rights of the Jewish community of Montreal. He evokes what he sees as the demonstration of the good will of the Israelis in the conflict.

For two or three weeks, there have been tons of foodstuffs entering Gaza every day. So Israel has completely facilitated the transfer of food. There is also Egypt, whose border is completely closed. Everyone points the finger at Israel, but there’s one Arab country doing little to help resupply Gazahe told me.

From December, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of using hunger as a weapon of war. At the end of March, theUN declared that Gaza matters the largest proportion of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the Integrated Food Security Classification Framework (IPC) has ever classified for a given region or country.

It is estimated that half of Gaza’s population, or one million people, is starving.

On Sherbrooke Street, the film stopped. It’s time for religious songs in Hebrew, but with a pop touch. Some pro-Israeli demonstrators indulge in dancing and clapping their hands. Then, the students who organized the demonstration take the stage. They say they were insulted by demonstrators on the other side, that they were insulted because they were Jewish.

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On the pro-Palestinian side, Willa Holt contemplates the crowd on the other side of the fence, the dozens of Israeli flags flying in Sherbrooke Street. This Jewish American from North Carolina, who has lived in Quebec for several years, is disturbed by what she sees and hears. It’s difficult, very difficult to watch Jews support genocideshe says, shaken.

I tell him that on the other side of the fence, all the Jews I have spoken to say that what is happening in Gaza cannot be described as genocide.

The young woman, a member of the Independent Jewish Voices group which campaigns for peace in Palestine, mentions a word that I do not know, a Hebrew word: hasbara. Hasbara is Israeli propaganda. Even in our synagogues, we are exposed to it. It starts at school and in activities for children in the community. We are taught that what the Palestinians say is not true”,”text”:”Hasbara is Israeli propaganda. Even in our synagogues, we are exposed to it. It starts at school and in activities for children in the community. We are taught that what the Palestinians say is not true”}}”>Hasbara, this is Israeli propaganda. Even in our synagogues, we are exposed to it. It starts at school and in activities for children in the community. We are taught that what the Palestinians say is not trueshe explains.

Willa Holt points out that a Jew who has Palestinian friends or a Jew who speaks with Palestinians inevitably discovers a very different story than the one learned at school.

It submits the hypothesis that the people on the other side of this fence, as much physical as symbolic, ideological and political, do not speak with the Palestinians. And it suits them to believe that there is no genocide. But, there is a genocide going on right now. It’s the truth. Because if there was no genocide, we wouldn’t be here, would we?

The McGill gate will once again be open, a door to let passers-by, students and tourists freely enter the campus.

But the fence, the one planted in the souls, heads and hearts of demonstrators on both sides, will be very difficult to tear down.