Tensions between campus pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups that flared at McMaster one year ago during an event called Israeli Apartheid Week appear to have calmed as the 2009 version of the same event opens.

But some are concerned that outside organizers of a campus rally at noon today could upset that delicate peace.

The student club organizing Israeli Apartheid Week events, McMaster Muslims for Peace and Justice, and its pro-Israel counterpart, Israel On Campus, have approached it with open communication and promises to follow campus rules, say university administration and the student government, McMaster Students Union.

"It's been very co-operative," said MSU president Azim Kasmani. "It's been great."

Yesterday both campus groups peacefully distributed information just steps away from one another in the same hall where campus security had separated opposing groups during a controversial and unannounced rally last year.

"This year we are on great terms with the university," said MMPJ's vice-president Demah El-Sadek. "There should be no surprises."

Israel On Campus president Rebecca Cherniak is hopeful the week will be peaceful, though she is uncomfortable with the organizers' use of the word "apartheid" -- "it's like pronouncing a man guilty and then having a trial for him."

She said her group would videotape today's rally in case there are problems.

"What I am worried about are the ad hoc groups that aren't official campus clubs," she said.

"All of the progress that we've made to date in having constructive conversations, I'm worried that they'll ruin that."

Today's rally has been organized by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and Defend Gaza. Though SPHR's membership includes many students, it is not an officially recognized campus group, and neither is Defend Gaza.

Last year's Israeli Apartheid Week event became especially controversial when the university disallowed a poster it considered "unduly inflammatory."

That led to a free-speech forum in the student centre that drew three busloads of students from campuses in Toronto, plus McMaster students, professors and local residents on all sides of the issue.

Police became involved after some audience members complained that aspects of the post-debate rally by pro-Palestinian demonstrators were hateful. The hate-crimes investigation ended without charges.

Jamila Ghaddar, who took part in that rally and is an organizer of today's rally, said the subject of Palestinian human rights is serious and emotional.

"It's about people dying and suffering and their human rights being violated," she said. "Our speech last year at the rally was not hateful and it will not be hateful this year. In our point of view, if somebody is offended by what we say, that's not hate speech."

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