On March 3, 2025, Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR) at McGill submitted a motion to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Speaker, calling for a three-day student strike in support of Palestinian liberation. Accordingly, SSMU hosted a Special Strike General Assembly (SGA) on March 27, during which the required quorum of 500 members was well exceeded and the motion passed with  679 “Yes” votes and 13 “No” or abstaining, making this the first strike motion to pass through the SSMU GA in recent McGill history. The motion was then put up for ratification to the student body through an online ballot, which closed on March 31, with 3933 student voter turnout, which equates to 17 per cent of the student body. 2731 (72 per cent of non-abstaining voters) voted “Yes”, while 1061 students (28 per cent of non-abstaining voters) voted “No”. 

Scheduled to occur from April 2-4, the strike is timely and urgent, considering Israel’s most recent violation of a ceasefire deal with Hamas signed in January 2025. On March 18, 2025, the Israeli military launched air strikes that killed 430 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others. McGill continues to enable this genocide through their failure to divest in the face of widespread student protest. 

The strike demands that McGill fully divest from all weapons manufacturers associated with Israel’s genocide, end research partnerships with groups benefiting from the sale of military technology, and cease disciplinary cases against students who have been involved in advocacy or protest relating to Palestinian liberation. As the strike is not mandated, students are still encouraged to attend their exams and submit assignments, but are expected to skip class. SPHR will be offering strike-related programming during the three days, including workshops, rallies, and other events.

With recent incidents of expulsion, arrest, and even threatened deportation of pro-Palestine students who have peacefully demonstrated at U.S. universities and colleges, a united student front is imperative. Exhibiting commitment to and solidarity with protest efforts is crucial to ensuring the safety and protection of student protestors, particularly given McGill’s history of suspending and punishing those who have demonstrated on behalf of the Palestinian liberation movement. McGill’s administration has responded to previous negotiation efforts by SPHR with apathy and disregard for students’ concerns, while protests on campus last summer were met with police aggression, tear gas, and pepper spray.

In light of a new agreement between SSMU and McGill banning students with a disciplinary record—including infractions relating to protest demonstration—from serving in a SSMU executive position, the strike symbolically honours the work of SPHR and other pro-Palestine organizations who have been outspoken in the face of disciplinary and safety risks. It is our obligation as students to demonstrate solidarity not only with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement but also with the organizers who have shown up time and time again to protest Israel’s genocide. 
All undergraduate students should see it as a moral responsibility to strike. Crossing the picket line by going to class not only sends the message that the student body is divided, ultimately weakening the strike’s impact, but also demonstrates apathy for Palestinian life and for the activists who have put their academic careers at risk for the cause. Professors can and should demonstrate solidarity with students throughout the strike by being flexible with exams, presentations, and deadlines or even participating in programming during the strike—as various members did during the encampment last summer. Crucially, students must not interpret the strike period simply as “time off” but engage with the mobilizing efforts coordinated by SPHR. Refusing to attend class not only communicates the student body’s commitment to BDS goals, but also opens up time for students to engage in advocacy and deepen their understanding of and commitment to the Palestinian liberation cause. It takes utter moral negligence to attend class during the strikes. It takes an absence of humanity to continue to look away. Demand divestment. Disrupt the status quo. Defend Palestinian liberation. Students, strike.