Faculty and Civil Society Groups Raise Human Rights Concerns after Canadian University Presidents Tour Israel

In late August, approximately two dozen Canadian university Presidents and other university administrators participated in a trip to Israel. The delegation included Presidents from Concordia University, Dalhousie University, University of Manitoba, McGill University, University of Ottawa, University of Waterloo, Western University, and York University, among others. 

The timing of this delegation raises serious human rights concerns. Within just the past few years, major human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Al-Haq, and B’Tselem, as well as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied by Israel Since 1967, have concluded that Israel’s practices against Palestinians amount to the crime of apartheid under international law. 

The entire education system for Palestinians takes place under these conditions of apartheid, which are particularly severe in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli administration recently imposed a strict quota on the ability of Palestinian universities to extend invitations to visiting faculty and researchers within territory it militarily occupies in contravention of international law. No such quota exists for Israeli universities in illegal settlements within the same territory.

We are troubled that the Canadian delegation has visited Israeli universities to collaborate in research and development, flagrantly ignoring these grave findings. These Canadian university administrations are giving tacit permission, whether intentionally or not, for the state of Israel to continue its persecution of Palestinians under its military occupation as well as Palestinians to whom it has extended a second-class citizenship.

It is also troubling that the trip was funded by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), an advocacy group that has acted to the detriment of academic freedom and respect for universal human rights. Recently, CIJA facilitated blatant interference in a hiring process at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, which led to the university’s censure by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). The purpose of CIJA’s intervention was to stop the hiring of an academic whose work was critical of Israel’s occupation.

As public institutions, these Canadian universities are fully accountable to the academic community and the public for their scholarly activities and investments. Such accountability extends to students of Palestinian descent as well as their supporters, for whom the violation of human rights and rights to self-determination on the land to which Palestinians belong is intolerable.

The undersigned have several questions and grave concerns that need to be answered and addressed: 

(1) Why was there no public announcement about the delegation before the trip, preventing the community from raising any concerns? 

(2) What could justify this delegation’s willingness to accept a trip funded and organized by CIJA, an organization with a demonstrated history of attacking academic freedom in Canada, when university administrators have a duty to safeguard the academic freedom of their faculty and students, not undermine it?

(3) Palestinian civil society, including Palestinian students, faculty, and university administrators have called on the world to boycott Israeli academic institutions in order to stop Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights, including their right to education. Why are the voices and concerns of Palestinian civil society and academic organizations not considered a matter of priority for these university presidents?

For further inquiries, please contact the Coalition for Palestine at: coalition4p@gmail.com     

Sincerely,

Palestinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network

Faculty for Palestine

Independent Jewish Voices

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East

From Ceasefire to CeaseApartheid

Faculty for Palestine Calls to Action
for Organizing Now

“Palestinians are showing enormous bravery during this moment of horror. Now we need the world to respond with corresponding acts of courage and support.” – Omar Barghouti

Palestinians have inaugurated a stunning new era of mass resistance from the besieged Gaza Strip to the occupied West Bank, across cities in historic Palestine and the diaspora. In what they are calling the Unity Intifada, Palestinians are resisting the ongoing colonization of their lands, ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, a fourteen-year siege on Gaza, construction and expansion of illegal settlements, military occupation, and apartheid. They have widened and deepened a powerful, steadfast and creative liberation movement. The international solidarity movement, nourished by broad anti-racist movements globally, has responded with its own renewed vigour in mass demonstrations around the world. 

The challenge now is to build on this massive momentum.

Faculty for Palestine, in solidarity with the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), calls for a re-doubling of organizing within academic and scholarly associations, unions, and on our campuses for ending complicity in Israel’s regime of apartheid, settler colonialism, and military occupation. The anti-racist campaign for BDS remains the most powerful strategy at our disposal. Currently, Israel enjoys all of the military, economic, and political advantages over the Palestinians. Decades of complicity,
active support, and diplomatic cover from European and North American states and institutions have given Israel the green light to intensify their aggression towards the Palestinians. In the current environment, Israel is not compelled to change its policies and practices. International pressure must be applied to Israel to force it to change its behavior.

We therefore call for collective, coordinated and effective organizing allied with the guidelines of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the
direction of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).

Specifically, we make the following recommendations for concrete actions now:

1. Academic Freedom and Collegial Governance

  • Organize to get your faculty association or union to support the #NoIHRA campaign. Stop the IHRA definition from being used to censor critical scholarship and undermine anti-racist and decolonization campaigns on campuses. See the NoIHRA campaign for resources and to get in touch here.
  • Support the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) censure of the University of Toronto. For details, see https://censureuoft.ca/. Ask your union to pass a resolution in support of censure. Examples can be found on the website. While this is not part of the BDS movement or the boycott of Israel, the attack on academic freedom at U of T is linked to the broader
    silencing of speech on Palestine, often referred to as the Palestine exception, as well as to silencing of critical anti-racist speech and practice.
  • Support students and faculty (contract and permanent) who come under attack for their critical scholarship, positions, and organizing on Palestine. Many of these attacks have a clear pattern: racialized faculty and students (which includes Palestinian scholars) are particularly targeted, many of whom do broad anti-colonial, anti-racist organizing and/or scholarship. Additionally, without job security, faculty do not enjoy real academic freedom; calls for academic freedom urgently need to address academic precarity.
    • At McGill University, pro-Palestinian students are being terrorized through a “blacklist.” Students have been doxed and have been targeted through racial, gendered, sexual online attacks.
  • Draft administrative and faculty statements that call for holding
    Israel accountable, including through BDS actions, for its destruction of Palestinian universities, research centres, schools and archives.
    • According to a United Nations report, the recent attack on Gaza has resulted in damage to over 50 educational institutions.
    • Faculty and students of Birzeit University, including Dr. Lena Meari, were injured by the Israeli occupation forces during the May attacks.
  • Confront anti-Semitism effectively and in a principled manner with this five-part framework rather than through the IHRA definition.
  • Demand that Universities affirm and protect academic freedom and free speech of all university employees to teach, research, write, and speak in support of Palestine, including endorsement of BDS.

2. Teaching and Praxis

  • Support Palestinian-led scholarship. Include Palestinian scholarship in course syllabi, writing and invite Palestinian scholars to speaking engagements. Include critical scholarship on Palestine in course syllabi and writing.
  • Organize teach-ins and forums on your campus about BDS. Use the analytic tools of the settler colonial paradigm and apartheid framework. Recent damning reports confirm what Palestinians and other critical analysts have long said: this is apartheid.
  • Support student activism on campus on Palestinian rights and liberation.
  • Call on your institution to fund scholarships and fellowships for Palestinian students and academics.
  • Build direct solidarity with Palestinian academic and cultural institutions, and with Palestinian academics and students. Do this work without a requirement that Palestinians partner with Israeli counterpart institutions.

3. Divestment and Sanctions

  • Support divestment campaigns: Work with students and other
    allies on campus for divestment from companies that sustain Israeli war crimes, apartheid, and human rights violations.

4. Academic Boycott and Non-Recognition Campaigns

  • Organize for adopting resolutions from your scholarly association and/or academic union in support of BDS. Contact the BDS movement for advice.
  • Avoid participation in academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions.
Keep us up to date on actions you have done. Remember that you are not alone in this work. Reach out to us if we can provide support. We are all volunteers, but we will do what we can!
Let us know how you are responding to this call by emailing us at fac4pal@gmail.com. We would like to keep track of how faculty and students are showing solidarity with the Palestinian people on our website.

ارقدي في سلام وقوّة عزيزتنا MJ.

This tribute to Mary-Jo Nadeau can be found in English just below this post. Thanks to Christo El Morr for the translation.

تعرب «أساتذة من أجل فلسطين» عن حزنها العميق لفقدان الرائعة والجميلة ماري جو نادو (المعروفة بـ «إم. جاي») الناشطة والباحثة والصديقة والمشاركة في تأسيس «أساتذة من أجل فلسطين». لقد فُجِعَ الكثيرون منا لأنّها جعلت بناء علاقات المحبة أمرًا أساسيًا في بناء الحركات النضاليّة. نعرب عن أعمق تعازينا لشريك إم جاي لمدة عشرين عامًا، ستيفن تافتس، ولأسرتها وأصدقائها ورفاقها. كان لدى «إم. جاي» شبكة كبيرة بشكل لا يصدق من الأشخاص حول العالم الذين يحبونها، والذين تتدفق الإشادة منهم يوميًا.

كانت ماري جو قوة للتضامن الفلسطيني وضد التفوق الأبيض والاستعمار الاستيطاني الأبيض. لقد كانت حاسمة في بناء حركة مقاطعة إسرائيل (بي. دي إس) في كندا وإبقائنا على اتصال بحركة المقاطعة في جميع أنحاء العالم. بالإضافة إلى «أساتذة من أجل فلسطين»، شاركت إم جي في تأسيس «التحالف ضد الفصل العنصري الإسرائيلي»، وكرست نفسها للعمل من أجل فلسطين. بصفتها ناشطة ومنظمة «الاتحاد الكندي للموظفيّ القطاع العام»، عملت بلا كلل لتعزيز الدعم النقابي للتضامن مع فلسطين. كانت ماري جو أيضًا باحثة بارعة قدمت نقدًا مناهضًا للعنصرية إلى الحركة النسويّة الكنديّة وكتبت بشكل نقدي عن إسكات المعارضة السياسيّة لدولة إسرائيل. تخرجت بدرجة الدكتوراه في علم الاجتماع من جامعة يورك عام 2005، وعلى مر السنين، قامت بالتدريس في العديد من الجامعات بما في ذلك جامعة يورك، وجامعة ويلفريد لوريير، وجامعة تورنتو ميسيسوجا، وجامعة ترينت. تُظهر إشادات طلابها أنها كانت معلمة محبوبة للغاية، ودعت الطلاب إلى رؤية أنفسهم كوكلاء لبناء عالم أفضل.

إنّ «أساتذة من أجل فلسطين» تدين بشكل كبير في وجودها لحماس ماري جو وتفانيها وذكائها السياسي. كان لدى «إم. جاي» طريقة لجعل كل من حضر اجتماعاتنا ونشاطاتنا يشعر بالترحيب والأهمية. لقد استندت إلى معرفتها العميقة وعلاقاتها بحركة التضامن الفلسطينية لتبقى تورنتو تنظم الاجتماعات بشكل مستمرّ، قائدة بمشورتها الحكيمة وضحكتها المُعدية والدفء وروح الدعابة. مع تركيزها الدائم على «الصورة الكبيرة» والعمل التفصيلي على أرض الواقع، قامت «إم. جاي» بدفع «أساتذة من أجل فلسطين» منذ بدايتها كحفنة من باحثين في منطقة تورنتو لتنمو كشبكة من 600 أستاذ من جميع الرتب، وأمناء مكتبات، في 40 جامعة وكلّية في جميع أنحاء كندا.

جمعت «إم. جاي» تجمّع «أساتذة من أجل فلسطين» معًا، وألهمتنا جميعًا بالتزامها ومسؤوليتها ودفئها وروح الدعابة. في حين أنه من المؤلم تخيّل لقاء «أساتذة من أجل فلسطين» بدون «إم. جاي»، فإن مثابرتها في الأشهر الماضية تذكرنا بأنه يجب علينا ألا نشعر باليأس. أولاً نحدّ، ثم نتابع التنظيم.

ارقدي في سلام وقوّة عزيزتنا «إم. جاي»

Remembering Mary-Jo Nadeau

Faculty for Palestine expresses deep sorrow today as we grieve the loss of the beautiful, brilliant Mary-Jo Nadeau, activist, scholar, friend, and co-founder of Faculty for Palestine. So many of us are devastated because MJ made building loving relationships central to building movements. We express our deepest condolences to MJ’s partner of twenty years, Steve Tufts, and to her family, friends, and comrades. MJ also had an incredibly large network of folks around the world who cherished and loved her, and from whom tributes have been flowing in daily.

Mary-Jo was a force for Palestinian solidarity, and against white supremacy and white settler colonialism. She was crucial to building the BDS movement in Canada and keeping us connected with the BDS movement worldwide. In addition to Faculty for Palestine, MJ co-founded the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), and dedicated herself to Labour for Palestine. As an activist and organizer for CUPE, she worked tirelessly to promote union support for Palestine solidarity. Mary-Jo was also a brilliant scholar who brought an anti-racist critique to Canadian feminism and wrote critically on the silencing of the political opposition to the Israeli state. She graduated with a PhD in Sociology from York University in 2005 and, over the years, she taught at various campuses including York University, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Toronto Mississauga, and Trent University. Tributes from her students show that she was a much-loved educator, who invited students to see themselves as agents for building a better world.

Faculty for Palestine exists in no small part because of Mary-Jo’s enthusiasm, dedication and political smarts. MJ had a way of making everyone who attended our meetings and events feel welcome and important. She drew on her deep knowledge of and connections with the Palestinian solidarity movement to keep Toronto organizing meetings on track, leading with wise counsel and her infectious laugh, warmth and good humour. Always with her eye on the big picture and on the detailed work on the ground, MJ steered F4P from its beginning as a handful of Toronto-area scholars into a network of 600 faculty of all ranks and librarians in 40 universities and colleges across Canada.

MJ held F4P together and inspired us all with her commitment, responsibility, warmth and humour. While it is painful to imagine a Faculty for Palestine meeting without MJ, her perseverance in the last months reminds us that we must not despair.

First mourn, then organize.

Rest in peace and power dear MJ.

Justice is indivisible: Faculty for Palestine in solidarity with Black-led justice movements against racism and police violence

Floyd George Mural in Milwaukee. Painted Thursday, June 4, 2020, as a collective artists and community effort.    Photo by Graham Kilmer, and posted June 5, 2020, on UrbanMilwaukee.

Faculty for Palestine (F4P Canada) expresses unwavering solidarity with Black liberation movements, and allied mobilizations of other oppressed people, demanding justice in the face of racial terror, criminalization, surveillance, incarceration and murder of Black life in Canada and the US. We urge our members and supporters to participate in the mobilizations (while practicing COVID-19 safety precautions) and/or to provide concrete material and political support.

We heed the calls from the mass mobilizations in the streets of Canada and the US as well as from our allied organizations, USACBI and the BDS National Committee (BNC) , the Palestinian coalition leading the global BDS movement. BNC has asked Palestinian solidarity organizations “to stand with the Movement for Black Lives and other Black-led organizations in their righteous struggle for justice.” This current rebellion is part of a long tradition of Black radical resistance that has inspired liberation movements globally, including BDS and the broader Palestinian justice project.

The US Black intifada comes in the wake of the racist police murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Tony McDade in Tallahassee, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, to name only the most recent in a very long list of such murders, including those of Black queer and trans people. In Canada, the death of an Afro-Indigenous woman, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, killed during a police intervention in her Toronto apartment, joins a long list of murders, historical neglect and profiling of Black, Indigenous and other racialized individuals. In just the last two months, Canadian police forces have murdered five Indigenous people: Eishia Hudson, Jason Collins, Stewart Kevin Andrews, Everett Patrick and Chantel Moore. In addition to endemic anti-Black racism , we also acknowledge the disturbing resurgence of anti-migrant, anti-Asian/anti-Chinese, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Latinx pandemic racisms. We mourn the death of the unarmed Palestinian, Iyad Halak, shot dead on Saturday by Israeli police.

Faculty for Palestine stands with the families of the murdered, sharing their demands for prompt and full investigations into the deaths of their loved ones, and their calls for justice.

The white settler colonies of the US and Canada were built on Black enslavement, Indigenous dispossession, racial capitalism, indentured and migrant labour, and patriarchal social relations. Contemporary protests reflect outrage at historical and ongoing white supremacy and at militarized policing to protect property and repress dissent. Justice cannot come through meaningless calls for police reform. We acknowledge the work of Black and other racialized activists and scholars who have elaborated critical new frameworks through decades of work.

• F4P therefore affirms its full support of: abolition and divestment from prisons, policing, and immigration detention; defunding police in favour of social investment in peoples’ needs; decolonization, redress and reparations for historic and ongoing violence against Black, Indigenous, migrant and racialized people.

Faculty for Palestine opposes the accelerating convergence of US and Israeli racial projects. Concretely, this includes exchange programs between Israeli occupation forces and US police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI agents to train, share technologies, and exchange worst practices including racial profiling, mass surveillance, spying, shoot-to-kill, detention and deportation. Canada is not an exception . In 2005, 32 police chiefs from across Canada travelled to Israel for an Israeli police and state-sponsored mission to deepen and further militarize security ties through joint police trainings and trade shows in high-tech security products. Further, and in line with U.S. state anti-divestment efforts, both the Conservatives and Liberals in Canada have advanced legislation to silence growing support for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As a Palestinian solidarity organization, F4P calls for ending all missions and training exchanges of Canadian and US police forces, law enforcement, and border patrol with the Israeli apartheid regime and its occupation forces. We recommit to working with Palestinian prisoner support and human rights organizations, such as Addameer , and with all those detained and imprisoned. We rededicate support for the Birzeit University Right2Education campaign, in solidarity with Palestinian students and faculty subjected to arrests, beatings and imprisonment by the Israeli occupation forces. And we continue to work with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and USACBI in struggle to end apartheid, institutionalized racism, policing and campus militarization.

Faculty for Palestine denounces York University President’s suspension of Students Against Israeli Apartheid-York

Faculty for Palestine (F4P) denounces York University President Rhonda Lenton’s recent decision to temporarily suspend Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA)-York as a campus organization.

F4P joins many allies, nationally and internationally, who have already expressed support for the students and other Palestine solidarity activists who gathered at the SAIA-organized rally on November 20 at York University to protest the Herut Canada event with soldiers from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), a military well known for its extensive human rights violations. We stand in solidarity and broad agreement with statements written by Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA-York) and Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) in the aftermath of November 20. We endorse the December 8th call by Amnesty International for an independent inquiry into November 20. We are also grateful for all those organizations that have supported SAIA with their public statements; the list of supporters continues to grow, and includes York University Graduate Students’ Association (YUGSA)/York Federation of Students (YFS) joint statement, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3903, BDS South Africa, and BDS Australia. We encourage our colleagues, friends and allies to follow their lead by condemning the violence against students and other Palestine solidarity activists on York campus. F4P remains steadfast in our commitment to the advocacy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on (BDS) our campuses.

F4P understands the Herut Canada event as a clear provocation meant to silence BDS and broader Palestinian advocacy on campus, and to shield the Israeli state from criticism by suggesting that all such critique constitutes anti-Semitism. Groups such as B’nai Brith, which have been urging the York University administration to revoke SAIA’s student status, form part of a broader campaign by the Israeli state and its advocates to stop advocacy for Palestinian human rights and to silence Palestinian narratives. Given this context, and the vicious attacks by the Jewish Defense League on November 20, we are deeply dismayed that the York University administration is now advocating “dialogue” between the opposing sides. We are also deeply concerned about the militarization of campus life as well as the role of campus security in failing to protect the students from the violence and injury caused by the JDL, well known for its far-right, nationalist politics. Indeed, there have been previous calls to ban JDL from campus due to its violent actions. Even Hillel, a Zionist organization, declined to endorse the Herut Canada event.

We hold the York Administration accountable for failing to protect students and community activists and call for the following immediate actions:

i. President Lenton immediately revoke the suspension of SAIA-York, and ensure that the official review of the JDL and Herut’s violent actions that evening also includes statements from those who were victims of this violence.
ii. President Lenton clearly acknowledge and further investigate the perpetrators of the violence, specifically, a) the direct violence and injuries/harms to students/Palestine solidarity activists by the JDL and b) the violence it tacitly authorized by permitting the IDF, Herut Canada and the Jewish Defense League on campus.
iii. President Lenton ensure that students, faculty and their allies who attended the SAIA-York protest on November 20 are not punished in any way – either as individuals or organizations – for exercising their right to protest and express concerns about the inappropriate use of York campus.
iv. President Lenton and York Administration foster an environment where all campus members (and their non-campus allies) are free to advocate for the demilitarization of campus and for divestment.

This particular provocation is not a singular event. Attempting to silence Palestine solidarity is part of a long-standing and widespread pattern on our campuses. We call on the York University Administration to reappraise its response to date and to urgently address these calls for immediate action.

—-
Faculty for Palestine (Canada) was formed in 2008 and organizes in solidarity with, and endorses, the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (2005) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

Faculty for Palestine Statement in support of SPHR McGill

Faculty for Palestine, and the undersigned signatories would like to express our strong and unwavering support for SPHR McGill and other students at McGill University who have been organizing and mobilizing in opposition to the new POLI 339 course. This course, which isscheduled to be held this summer, includes a two-week exchange program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. As student activists have critically and consistently argued, this discriminates against Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students who would be subjected to potential harassment, detention and/ or expulsion by the Israeli border authorities. Moreover, the funding for this course is strongly tied to the violent Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories, and Hebrew University itself is partially situated on illegally obtained land in East Jerusalem.

As strong supporters of the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, we are appalled by the McGill University’s continued support for and engagement in exchanges with Israeli institutions, and by the senior Administration’s refusal to recognize the constitutionally binding vote of the Arts Undergraduate Society Legislative Council NOT to approve the additional fee that will be charged for this course. We stand in solidarity with the students in demanding that McGill University cancel the POLI 339 course.

NOTE: Signatures are organized alphabetically by last name, and are used in a personal capacity. Institutional affiliations are for identification purposes only.

  • Nahla Abdo (PhD.), Professor, Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario
  • Professor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, PhD, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University
  • Malek Abisaab, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Rula Abisaab, Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Brian Aboud, Professor, Vanier College, Montreal
  • Nadia Abu-Zahra, Associate Professor, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
  • Greg Albo, professor of Politics, York University, Canada
  • Diana Allan, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Sima Aprahamian, Ph.D., Research Associate, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Sylvat Aziz, Associate Professor, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
  • Beverly Bain, LTA, Women and Gender Studies/Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto (UTM), Ontario
  • Abigail B. Bakan, Professor, University of Toronto
  • Himani Bannerji, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Roger Beck, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Jody Berland, Professor, York University, Toronto
  • Brenna Bhandar, Senior Lecturer, SOAS, University of London, UK
  • Davina Bhandar, Centre for Social Sciences, Athabasca University, Alberta
  • Naomi Binder Wall, PhD Student, OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Malcolm Blincow, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology (Emeritus), York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Lara Braitstein, Associate Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Haim Bresheeth, Professorial Research Associate, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, School of Oriental and African Studies and  Director of Camera Obscura Films
  • Andrew Brook, Chancellor’s Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science Emeritus, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
  • Paul Leduc Browne, D.Phil., Professeur titulaire, Université du Québec en Outaouais
    Gatineau, Québec
  • Mike Burke, PhD, Associate Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Noah Cannon, Master’s Student, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Valentina Capurri, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario
  • Aziz Choudry, Associate Professor, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University, Montreal
  • Ken Collier, Professor (retired), PhD (Econ), Athabasca University, Mission, British Columbia, Canada
  • Deborah Cowen, University of Toronto
  • Edwin E. Daniel, Ph.D., FRSC, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology, University of Alberta, McMaster University, Victoria, BC, Canada
  • Chandler Davis, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Mary Ellen Davis, Part-Time Faculty, Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montréal Quebec
  • Kari Dehli, Professor Emerita, Department of Social Justice Education, OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Wilfrid Denis, Professor emeritus, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. Saskatchewan, Canada
  • Peter Eglin, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
  • Christo El Morr, Associate Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Mohammad Fadel, Professor of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
  • Randa Farah, Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
  • Sue Ferguson, Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford, Ontario
  • Peter Fitting, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Mireya Folch-Serra, Professor Emerita, University of Western Ontario, London, ON
  • Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, Associate Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada
  • Dina Georgis, Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto
  • Peter Gose, Full Professor of Anthropology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
  • Kevin A. Gould, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Jesse Greener, professeur agrégé Université Laval, Québec., QC
  • Nadia Habib, Contract Faculty, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Judy Haiven, Retired professor, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, Canada
  • Wael Hallaq, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
  • rosalind hampton, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Justice Education, OISE, University of Toronto
  • Larry Hannant, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia
  • Michelle Hartman, Professor, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Sumi Hasegawa, Retired Faculty Lecturer, McGill University, Montreal, QC., Canada
  • David Heap, Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
  • Adrienne Hurley, Associate Professor of East Asian Studies, McGill University, Montréal, Canada
  • Wilson Chacko Jacob, Associate Professor, Department of History, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Kathryn Kalemkerian, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
  • Michael Keefer, Professor Emeritus, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph
  • Paul Kellogg, Athabasca University, Alberta
  • Robert D. Kent (PhD), Professor, School of Computer Science, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario
  • Shahnaz Khan, Professor Emerita, Wilfrid Laurier University, Women and Gender Studies and Global Studies, PhD, Toronto
  • Prabha Khosla, Independent Urban and Gender Researcher
  • Gary Kinsman, Professor Emeritus, Sociology, Laurentian University
  • Dr. Tamari Kitossa, Associate Professor, Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario
  • Denis Kosseim, André-Laurendeau College/Cégep, Philosophy Department, Montreal (LaSalle burrough) QC
  • Thomas Lamarre, James McGill Professor, East Asian Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada
  • Margaret Little, Professor, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
  • Bruce Lofquist, MA, human rights advocate, Oakville ON Canada
  • Andrew Lugg, Emeritus Professor, University of Ottawa, Montreal
  • Rashmi Luther, Retired faculty, School of Social Work, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
  • Graeme MacQueen, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada (retired)
  • Juan Carlos Martinez PhD, Associate Professor Hispanic Studies, Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB
  • David McNally, Professor Emeritus, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Khalid Mustafa Medani, Associate Professor, Political Science and Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Dieter Misgeld. Professor emeritus, Ontario institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, Ontario
  • Shahrzad Mojab, Professor, University of Toronto, Canada
  • Kevin Moloney, Dept Languages, Literatures, Linguistics, York University, Toronto
  • Colin Mooers, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Graduate Program in Communication and Culture, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario
  • Joy Moore, M.S.W., M.A., McGill University School of Social Work graduate; MA History, Concordia University; Retired Faculty, Dawson College, Montreal, Quebec
  • Karen Murray, Associate Professor, Department of Politics, York University, Toronto
  • Mary-Jo Nadeau, Independent Scholar, PhD Sociology, York University, Toronto
  • Joanne Naiman, Professor Emerita, Sociology, Ryerson University, Toronto
  • Neil Naiman, Senior Scholar, York University, Toronto
  • Sheryl Nestel PhD, Activist/Independent Scholar,Toronto
  • Sylvie Paquerot, Professeure agrégée/Associate Professor, École d’études politiques/ School of Political Studies, Université d’Ottawa / University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
  • Karen Pearlston, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada
  • James Penney, Professor Department of Cultural Studies and Department of French and Francophone Studies,Trent University, Ontario, Canada
  • Justin Podur, York University, Ontario
  • Professor G. Potter, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario
  • Denis Rancourt, PhD, Retired Full Professor of Physics, University of Ottawa, Researcher, Ontario Civil Liberties Association, Ottawa, Canada
  • Norma Rantisi, Professor, Geography & Urban Planning, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
  • Leda Raptis, PhD, Professor, Queen’s University, Kingston
  • Judy Rebick, Former CAW Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario
  • Stephen Rockel, Associate Professor, Department of Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough, Ontario
  • Marty Roth, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Minnesota
  • Reuben Roth, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Labour Studies Program
    School of Northern & Community Studies, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada
  • Najib Safieddine, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Ontario
  • Madalena Santos, PhD, Instructor, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
  • Sarah Schulman. Distinguished Professor, City University of New York, College of Staten Island, U.S.A.
  • Helen Scott, Associate Professor, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
  • Alan Sears, Sociology, Ryerson University
  • Alan Shandro, Associate Professor, Political Science, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario
  • Eric Shragge, Associate Professor, Retired, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University, Montreal
  • Gregory Shupak, University of Guelph-Humber, Ontario
  • Harry Smaller (Ph.D), Associate Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Adrian Smith, Associate Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Douglas Smith, PhD student, Universidad de Chile; M.A. Hispanic Studies Graduate from Concordia University; Part-time course lecturer at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile
  • Fernanda Soler Urzúa, Assistant professor, Departamento de Estudios Pedagógicos, Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, Universidad de Chile
  • Daiva Stasiulis, Professor, Sociology/Anthropology, Carleton University, Ottawa Canada
  • Andrew Stevens (PhD), Associate Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan
  • Donald Swartz, Professor (retired), Carleton University, Ottawa
  • Itrath Syed, PhD Candidate, School of Communication, SFU, Vancouver, Canada
  • Vannina Sztainbok, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Social Education, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Steven Tufts, Associate Professor, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Dror Warschawski, Associate Professor, UQAM, Montréal, Canada
  • Kathy Wazana, Graduate Student, York University, Toronto, Canada
  • Laura Westra, Ph.D., Ph.D.(Law), Professor Emerita (Philosophy), University of Windsor Sessional Instructor, Faculty of Law, Visiting Professor,Faculty of Jurisprudence, University of Salerno
  • Anna Willats, Faculty, AWCCA Program, George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario
  • Cynthia Wright, York University, Toronto, Ontario

Society for Socialist Studies Passes Boycott Motion

The Society for Socialist Studies made the following announcement on June 21, 2018:

Motion on academic boycott of Israel passes at Society for Socialist Studies AGM

The Society for Socialist Studies (SSS) joined the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel when it passed a motion supporting the boycott of Israeli academic institutions at its AGM on May 31st.

The motion, which passed unanimously, reads that the Society “endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions” and that the Society “supports the protected rights of students and scholars everywhere to engage in research and public speaking about Palestine and the state of Israel and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.”

Read more about it here.

Stand Against Apartheid Lawfare

Faculty for Palestine is one of multiple organizations to endorse the Stand Against Apartheid Lawfare petition
The petition is a response by members of the American Studies Association to the last remaining lawsuit targeting the ASA’s BDS resolution.
Among other things, the petition points out that the lawsuit names “further members of the ASA who, we note, are predominantly queer, indigenous/Palestinian, and women of color, despite the fact that those working towards the resolution also included white (and specifically white Jewish) ASA members, and although an overwhelming majority of the ASA membership voted in favor of the resolution.”
Please take the time to review the petition in full and consider signing.

Stand Against Apartheid Lawfare!

The Louis D. Brandeis Center is engaged in lawfare against members of the American Studies Association, against the association itself, and against the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (http://www.usacbi.org/). This lawfare takes the form of a frivolous and racist lawsuit.

As experts at Palestine Legal have explained: “The Brandeis Center is seeking to fix the failed theory of their original lawsuit against the American Studies Association (ASA) by asking the court for permission to add new theories and new defendants . . .

 

Support Boycott Divestment and Sanctions