An organization that represents Jewish communities on university campuses in the province says the encampment protests are intimidating for Jewish students. But an encampment in solidarity with Palestinian human rights at McMaster University says everything is peaceful.

The protesters are calling on the university to divest from any Israeli organizations with ties to the war in Gaza. The encampment is currently in its sixth day. There are around 150 people in the encampment and they tell CHCH News that it has expanded.

The protesters say they are expecting more people to come out and join their cause. This is just one of many other similar protests happening across the country and in the U.S.

While the protesters maintain that their protest is peaceful there is concern that’s not the case.

Jay Solomon from Hillel Ontario said, “The overwhelming majority of Jewish Canadians have strong ties to their ancestral homelands, and when you have these occupations of campus that are directly targeting that, directly threatening that, that’s intimidating, that’s harassing.”

Meanwhile, in response to this, a representative of the protest at McMaster who did not want to provide their name says the encampment welcomes everyone and says their cause is not a religious issue.

“We have Jewish people in this camp. In fact, today, at 7 o’clock, we’re holding a Shabbat for the Jewish people in the camp. It’s not a matter of religion, right, we have religious people we have a very diverse camp.”

Hillel Ontario could not comment on any specific incidents of harassment or intimidation citing privacy but says they have been hearing from Jewish students at McMaster specifically.

“From students’ parents and community members, who are deeply concerned by the imagery that the occupation that’s happening at McMaster is showing, there have been calls for intifada, and resistance. Those are violent manifestation of real world conflicts.”

Hamilton police tell CHCH News it is aware of the protest but has not been called in by the university to assist.

Meanwhile, the protesters say their purpose is not to intimidate or harass. They have been calling on the university to accept demands. “Specifically we would want McMaster to end the coop exchange program.”

They point specifically to aerospace and defense company L3Harris which according to McMaster’s website engineering students have cooped at. They allege L3Harris has some connection to Israeli weapons.

They are also calling on the school to disconnect from educational institutions in Israel.

According to a 2014 article on McMaster’s website, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Israel Institute of Technology.

“I think it would send a great message as an academic institution we want to make sure we teach our students that this is going to go down in the history books, and we want to be on the right side of history.”

CHCH News reached out to the university for comment on Friday but has yet to respond. In previous statements, the university has said it is open to dialogue.

CHCH News also reached out to McMaster’s security team about if there have been any reported harassment, we have not heard back from them either.

The group says they are not going to leave until their demands are met.