A McGill University professor and award-winning Marxist author is drawing concern and ire from groups after suggesting that Canada begin militarily and financially supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. Political science professor William Clare Roberts posted support for the groups on X, despite their being deemed terrorist organizations in Canada. “I used to think BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) was a good idea,” Roberts wrote on the social media site. “I’ve come around, though: nothing short of ‘full economic and military support for Hamas and Hezbollah’ is appropriate.” The political theory specialist defended the post, telling CTV News that Western democracies need to take “much more serious action to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” “Supporting the on-the-ground resistance forces both economically and militarily will not only check Israel’s assault but likely make those resistance forces more amenable to a future negotiated and democratic peace,” he said. Roberts has since made his X account private. “The Zionist outrage machine found it, and I started getting large numbers of very obnoxious and very boring interactions, so I went private for a while,” he said. McGill University has declined to comment on his posts. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) sent a letter to McGill president Deep Saini about the post and has filed a complaint. “The notion of full economic and military support for two groups that have been declared and qualified as terrorist groups by the Canadian government and clearly operate as terrorist groups by someone in a position of authority at one of our universities is deeply and profoundly concerning,” said CIJA vice president Eta Yudin. Yudin added that the organization understands the importance of free speech and that differing views must be allowed to be expressed freely, but that Roberts’ post “crosses a clear line into incitement and the endorsement of violence.” CIJA also expressed concern that Roberts is the vice chair of McGill’s committee on student discipline. “At a time when we’ve seen campus ripe with toxicity and hate and incitement and incident after incident where students have been facing intimidation and hate, to have someone who openly supports terrorist groups be in a position to determine discipline, just adds another layer of concern to the situation,” said Yudin. Yudin said she hopes McGill distances itself from Roberts’ statements and removes him from the committee. Roberts won the Deutscher Memorial Prize in 2017 for his book “Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Capital” and tweets under the moniker @Marxinhell.
