Margaret Gilligan
Overview
Margaret “Maggie” Gilligan [Margaret Clare Gilligan] engaged in anti-Israel activism as a member of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill in 2014 and 2015. SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).Gilligan is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Gilligan graduated from McGill with a bachelor’s degree in World Islamic and Middle East Studies, and Hispanic Studies in 2015. In 2016, Gilligan was a graduate student in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
Gilligan was a writer for the McGill Daily in 2014 and 2015.
In November 2016, Gilligan was reportedly located in Bethesda, Maryland.
Anti-Israel Activism (SPHR, BDS)
On September 18, 2014, Gilligan promoted on Facebook a SPHR event titled: “SPHR's First General Meeting - featuring McGill Professor Panel on BDS” scheduled for September 25, 2014. Gilligan commented: “ya es hora [it’s time].”The panel event was co-organized with McGill SPHR executive, Nazim Elnur and featured three professors from the university’s Institute of Islamic Studies and the then-head librarian of the Islamic Studies Library.
One of the panelists at the event, Associate Professor of Arabic Literature, Michelle Hartman, said [00:00:30] she wanted people to think about how to change Canada’s “firmly pro-Israeli, pro-Zionist foreign policy” at a governmental or grassroots level.
Hartman also expressed [00:00:45] her interest in working against the idea of “normalization” between Israelis and Palestinians and in answering [00:01:17] “the call from Palestinian Civil Society” for BDS, saying [00:01:31] Palestinian “universities have asked for an academic boycott” of Israeli universities.
Another panelist, Rula Abisaab, Associate Professor of Islamic History, said [00:03:28] “the only way you can move out of helplessness is actually to collectively support the boycott of academic institutions in Israel… Israeli academics… they have to feel the burden.” She also dismissed [00:05:08] charges that BDS is a “violent, discrimination [sic], anti-Semitic, whatever against Israel.”
On December 3, 2014, Gilligan featured in a SPHR Facebook photo campaign called “#breakthesilence.” Gilligan held a sign with a quote that said in Arabic: “Solidarity with Palestine, we will not keep silent.”
On February 16, 2015, Gilligan reportedly co-facilitated a SPHR workshop with Zahra Habib titled “The Face of 21st Century State Violence and Police Brutality in Palestine”.
The workshop also reportedly illustrated that “state violence manifests visually in the lives of Palestinians, illustrating how these effects originate from institutions, such as the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as well as ideologies like racism, Zionism, and settler-colonialism.”
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.
At the workshop, Gilligan reportedly “highlighted increasing awareness of the intersectionality between black struggles in the U.S. and those in Palestine, as both governments respond to dissent with similar repression.”
Gilligan also reportedly said: “...another direct link is that one of the police forces that was used in Ferguson to calm protesters was trained by the IDF.”
In August 2014, riots took place in Ferguson, Missouri, following the death of Michael Brown, a black teenager. The riots prompted anti-Israel activists to blame Israel for police brutality in the U.S.
On March 9, 2015, Gilligan promoted a SPHR McGill BDS campaign on Facebook, writing: “Vote YES on March 15th to end McGill’s complicity in the illegal occupation and apartheid in Palestine.”
On March 15, 2015, SPHR McGill submitted a BDS motion at the SSMU GA calling on the university to boycott five corporations conducting business in Israel. The SSMU GA voted against the motion, reportedly by secret ballot, with 212 votes for, 276 against, and 9 abstaining.
On February 12, 2016, Gilligan promoted a McGill BDS divestment campaign on Facebook, posting a graphic that said: “McGill University YES TO BDS Vote on February 22nd 2016.”
On February 22, 2016, McGill BDS Action Network proposed a motion to the SSMU to demand the university withdraw investment from “corporations that profit from the occupation.”
The motion was endorsed by SPHR and 19 other student groups at McGill. The vote passed 512 to 357, in support of BDS.
On February 27, 2016, the BDS initiative lost a subsequent online ratification vote by 57 to 43 percent. Following the announcement of the vote, McGill Principal and Vice-Chancellor Suzanne Fortier issued a statement opposing BDS.
After the group’s BDS resolution failed to get ratified, Gilligan signed a March 8, 2016 letter, titled: “McGill alumni support BDS.” The letter said: “We congratulate and celebrate with all of you whose tireless work… successfully mobilized more than 2,100 undergraduate students to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”
The letter also stated: “we are disgusted” by an email sent from McGill principal Suzanne Fortier to students and alumni that condemned BDS “in the name of ‘the tolerance and respect we cherish as values fundamental to a university.’”
The letter went on to list companies that it alleged “actively support and profit from the occupation, incarceration, and murder of Palestinians.”
SPHR
SPHR was formed in 1999 via a merger between the Concordia Centre for Palestinian Human Rights (CCPHR) at Concordia and the Palestinian Solidarity Committee (PSC) at McGill University. The group gained notoriety after instigating a riot at Concordia University, that forced then former (and current) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a speech scheduled for September 9, 2002. Ticket holders later reported that the protesters subjected them to antisemitic slogans and physical attacks. A holocaust survivor was kicked in the groin and a local Rabbi with his wife were assaulted and spat on.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:www.facebook.com/maggie.c.hawco [Deleted]https://www.facebook.com/maggie.gilliganhawco [Deleted]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-gilligan-000720130 [Deleted]
McGill Daily:https://www.mcgilldaily.com/author/margaret-gilligan/
- Status:
- Unknown
- University:
- McGill
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- SPHR (SJP)
- Related Profiles:
- Michael McCauley,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
