Statements

Faculty for Palestine Demands End to Genocidal Attack on Gaza 

Faculty for Palestine expresses our unwavering support for and solidarity with the Palestinian people. We heed the call from our colleagues at Birzeit University on international academic institutions to intervene immediately to stop the genocide being waged against the Palestinian people. We mourn losses from all sides, and affirm that all human life has equal value. As scholars, we recognize that the current situation finds its roots in the 75-year Israeli occupation of Palestine accomplished through a settler colonial apartheid regime. 

We condemn the major powers of the world for actively supporting Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza. Israel has cut off the passage of food, water, electricity, medicine, and fuel to Gaza. UN aid agencies are faced with reducing their operations. Journalists, medics, hospitals, and educational institutions are systematically being targeted. Israel’s bombardment has struck approximately 185 educational facilities, including UNRWA schools and the Islamic University, which has been partially destroyed. As we write, over 7000 Palestinians have been reported killed in Gaza; among the dead, 3000 children and entire families have been wiped out. 1.1 million people have been forced to evacuate their homes, towns and cities in northern Gaza as uninterrupted bombing has destroyed many areas, including over 60,000 residential units. Telecommunication towers and cables have been destroyed further disabling an already collapsed health care system. The communication blackout has cut off Gazan’s from the outside world. 

As an organization of academic workers located in the settler state known as Canada, we condemn the Canadian government’s refusal to demand an end to the genocide by supporting an immediate ceasefire being called for by governments, diplomats, human rights organizations, trade unions, the UN, and civil society across the world. In fact, Canada is complicit in the oppression of Palestinians as it has a history of selling military technology to Israel, $21 million in 2022 alone, and maintains extensive economic ties with this occupying power.  We refuse to remain silent as we watch a systematic genocide underway supported by major western powers. 

The current events in Israel-Palestine have context and histories which have been largely erased by the statements released at Canadian Universities, and the mainstream media provides erroneous or one-sided news reporting that dehumanizes the Palestinian people. The Israeli state uses massacres, expulsion, demolition, siege, expanding illegal settlements, checkpoints, blockade, and the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians, including children across all of Palestine. In Gaza the majority of the people are refugees from 1948, who have been living under a 16- year siege, and are at immediate risk of genocide.

We observe the narrowing of permissible speech in Canada and note with alarm increased attacks upon academic freedom at several universities across the country, as disciplinary actions are being issued against students, faculty, student organizations and unions that have spoken out or issued statements critical of Israeli policies or expressing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. Faculty for Palestine opposes all forms of racism including anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and anti-semitism. We note with alarm the increased targeting of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied communities of students, faculty, and staff across universities and call on administrations to put an end to the harassment and sanctions these groups are facing. Universities and colleges across Canada have a responsibility to ensure that all their members are free from censorship, violence, intimidation, doxxing, harassment, and bullying. Universities also have the responsibility of protecting and promoting the right to academic freedom and freedom on speech on their campuses.

Faculty for Palestine demands that Canadian Universities uphold academic freedom, freedom of speech, and end all collaborations with Israel. We demand that universities:

  • Protect academic freedom and the rights of students, staff, and faculty to critique the state of Israel and its genocidal violence against Palestinians
  • Reject the censorship of critical and engaged scholarship on Israel and Palestine 
  • End the censorship and criminalization of support for Palestine
  • Stop conflating criticism of the Israeli state and its policies with anti-semitism
  • End their complicity in Israel’s apartheid regime by, among other things, canceling all joint projects and activities with complicit Israeli universities

Faculty for Palestine demands that the Canadian government to take a stand against genocide. We demand:

  • An immediate ceasefire
  • Humanitarian aid into Gaza
  • UN protection for Palestinians in Gaza
  • A stop to the mischaracterization of calls for justice as anti-semitism

We demand concrete efforts to stop a genocidal war. We call on our colleagues at Canadian universities and colleges to demand justice for all oppressed and colonized people especially the Palestinians. We remain steadfast in our view that a political solution that is premised on equality, justice, and freedom of the Palestinian people is the only path forward. 

As always, our hearts are with the people of Palestine.
Ceasefire Now!

Call to Action, Statements

Faculty Stand Up for Palestine

In light of the recent clampdown on university faculty, students and staff expressing solidarity with Palestinians, the Palestine Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) urges faculty members to act by issuing statements through their unions, association, programs and departments that call for “urgent action to help prevent further bloodshed and destruction.”

Calls for priority urgent action:

  • Immediate ceasefire
  • Humanitarian aid into Gaza
  • UN protection for Palestinians in Gaza

 Additional calls for action:

  • End complicity of university in Israel’s apartheid regime by, among other things, canceling all joint projects and activities with complicit Israeli universities. 

We present here statements and calls to action by the following organizations: 

  1. The Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism, Racism, Colonialism & Censorship in Canada (ARC)
  2. The Palestinian-Canadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAAN)
  3. University of Toronto Faculty, Staff, Students and Alumni
  4. Birzeit University Union of Professors and Employees, Occupied Palestine
  5. Tadamon! Montreal, QC

The Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism, Racism, Colonialism & Censorship in Canada (ARC) Call To Action & Emergency Statement on Academic Freedom and Critical Scholarship. 

We are gravely concerned about the widespread suppression of critical speech and academic freedom on Israel and Palestine in the past week not only in Canada, but across much of the West.  We are concerned that our university administrations are ill-equipped to address the pressures being placed on them by various third parties (including governments, the media, and organizations) to suppress academic freedom. 

Universities must reject the censorship of critical and engaged scholarship on Israel and Palestine that effectively serve to undermine the anti-racist and decolonization efforts they claim to support.

We are calling on all faculty associations, contract faculty unions, as well as teaching and research assistant unions across the country to take a proactive stance and immediately pass our sample motion. 

SAMPLE MOTION

[Insert Name] unequivocally supports the academic freedom of its members. This freedom includes the right to pursue research and open inquiry in an honest search for knowledge that is free from institutional censorship, including that of the government. 

[Insert Name]  acknowledges that the freedom from political and institutional censure is especially critical at times of war and conflict where scholarly voices are an important corrective to widespread disinformation campaigns.  

[Insert Name] supports the anti-racist and decolonial initiatives in Canadian educational institutions and opposes anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia along with all forms of racism and hatred. We will strive to ensure our members are free from experiencing bigotry and hate in our classrooms and campuses. 

[Insert Name] We are committed to protecting the security and safety of all scholars who are targeted because of their scholarship and political work. We call upon our institutions to implement measures to safeguard our members.

 [Insert Name] acknowledges that targeted attacks against scholars who support the Palestinian struggle have a chilling effect on the academic freedom of our members in the classroom, in their research, and in campus politics more broadly. These repressive tactics must be challenged, and scholars must be free from all forms of recrimination and harassment that may occur due to the nature of their research.

Please promote our materials widely.  

ARC Statement

ARC-Emergency-Statement-Call-to-Action-on-Academic-Freedom.docxDownload

PCAAN Statement on the Attack
on Palestine

Palestinians will not be erased.

The Palestinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAAN) is appalled at the wholesale erasure of the shock and grief experienced by the Palestinian Canadian community at this time. The inalienable need for liberation, the right of self-determination, and the inviolable belonging of the Palestinian people to the land, as inscribed and reinstated in countless UN resolutions, have been negated by the Canadian establishment. In the face of over 75 years of apartheid, 56 years of occupation, and a 17-year blockade, this is mind-blowing.

PCAAN condemns the failure and refusal of the Canadian government to comply with its obligations under Geneva IV: parties to this convention are obligated to protect occupied peoples and prohibited from transferring their own populations into occupied lands. They are not encouraged to hide their failures to comply using “unprovoked attack” narratives. Such narratives, provided without context, are also used as a pretext for the government’s refusal to act in accordance with its own stated foreign policy on illegal Israeli colonial occupation.

In its current applause and support for Israel’s alleged “right to defend itself,” Canada is enabling Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of hospitals, schools and universities, and the deprivation of 2.3 million people from food, water, fuel, and electricity. In the words of Francesca Albanese (UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967), supporting the intentional starvation of civilians when part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population is extremely concerning because it amounts to the commission of war crimes and, potentially, a crime against humanity. Canada’s history of shielding Israel’s impunity includes refusing to acknowledge, following the findings of major international human rights organizations, that Israel is imposing a structure of apartheid on an indigenous population. Apartheid is a crime against humanity.

Repeating endlessly that such a state has a right to self-defense does not make that crime go away: it comes down to claiming that the state has a right to commit crime. Likewise, reiterating ad nauseam that Hamas is a terrorist organization does not make the root causes of violence go away: it comes down to claiming that Israel has the right to boundless state violence, to state terrorism, whereas Palestinians, as an occupied people are denied the right recognized in international law to armed resistance. The regurgitation of the terrorism trope obfuscates the history, depth, and incommensurability of Israeli atrocities: 75 years of massacres, torture, “bone breaking”, sniper mutilations, carpet bombing, white phosphorous bombing, the bulldozing of refugee camps, targeted assassinations, night raids, child arrests, collective punishment and home demolitions, toxic waste dumping in the occupied West Bank, calorie restriction in Gaza, poisoned wells, theft of water and land confiscation. As chapters of Israeli state formation, all of the above followed from the 1948 extinction of 500 towns and villages, and the dispersal or violent elimination of two thirds of the Palestinian people; the inaugural yet ongoing acts of Palestine’s Nakba.

The concomitant suppression and censorship of today’s protests, in line with Canada’s shameful condemnation of the non-violent Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, the labelling of the Palestinian flag as support for terrorism, the surge in harassment and defamation of Palestinian students and faculty on Canadian campuses, fueled by Canada’s disgraceful adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s weaponized definition of antisemitism, have fanned the flames of misinformation and encouraged the lies at the heart of the racial contract and colonial project of the Israeli state. Until this project of eliminating and replacing the native is stopped, and its effects recognized and rectified, we fear Israel’s genocidal intent will be realized.

The Palestinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network (PCAAN)

October 14, 2023

Statement in Response to University of Toronto VP-International’s “Message to the Community on the War in the Middle East”

October 13, 2023 12:00pm

To: President Meric Gertler, Vice-President Communications Christine Szustaczek, Vice-President International, Joseph Wong, Dr. Kelly Hannah-Moffat, and Dr. Alison Burgess:

As over two thousand members of the University of Toronto community, we write to express our shock and disappointment at the statement released by the University of Toronto’s Office of Vice President International on October 9, 2023. Our university speaks about the importance of inclusion, compassion, and care for all equity-deserving groups, yet the statement made no mention of attacks on Palestinian civilians, and also failed to acknowledge the context and impact of the ongoing occupation of Palestine.

We, as University of Toronto community members of all backgrounds, have three significant concerns about the University’s statement:

  1. This statement mentioned only the attacks on Israeli civilians. It did not acknowledge the latest militarised violence enacted upon Palestinian civilians, which at the time of the statement had already seen renewed bombarding of Gaza neighbourhoods, as well as the Israeli decision on October 8th to disconnect Gaza’s access to water, electricity, fuel, food and humanitarian aid.  As of the writing of this letter, this assault has killed more than 1,800 Palestinians since October 7th, 2023 – at least 500 of whom are children. Many University of Toronto community members are from Palestine or have loved ones in Palestine. Some of these loved ones are now missing, injured, or dead. These members of our community need and deserve acknowledgment, concern, support, and care.
  2. The statement failed to acknowledge the brutal, untenable conditions that Israel has long imposed on Palestinians, which have been decried specifically as crimes of apartheid and oppression by major human rights authorities including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. The events of the past week are a direct result of these ongoing conditions, and by failing to provide this context, the University has contributed to the villainization of Palestinians – the impact of which is already being felt by our students, staff, faculty, and alumni.
  3. A statement on events in Israel-Palestine was only made when there was a mass attack on Israelis. However, Gaza has been subjected to a 17-year blockade, as well as multiple Israeli bombardments resulting in large numbers of civilian deaths:
    • 2008 – 1,385 Palestinians killed, including 318 children
    • 2012 – 168 Palestinians killed, including 33 children
    • 2014 – 2,251 Palestinians killed, including over 1,500 children
    • 2018 – 214 Palestinians killed, including 46 children
    • 2021 – 230 Palestinians killed, including 67 childrenSource: Visualizing PalestineFurthermore, the ongoing Israeli occupation commits daily acts of violence against Palestinians, including the killing of civilians, infliction of life-altering injuries, sexual violence, house demolition, and arbitrary detention.These atrocities received no comparable statement of support from the President’s Office or International Office.

We, the undersigned, decry and mourn the loss of civilian lives, Palestinian and Israeli. We ask that Palestinians’ lives, traumas, and families be valued by the University of Toronto equally with Jewish people and other equity-deserving groups. 

The University of Toronto has stated a commitment to the equity, diversity, and inclusion needs of all students, faculty, and staff. However, the exclusion of Palestinian community members from your statement has already resulted in: 

  • Palestinian students, staff, and faculty at U of T facing heightened anti-Palestinian racism in the form of threats, hostility from classmates, silencing, and suppression;
  • Arab and/or Muslim U of T community members who are not Palestinian also becoming targets of anti-Palestinian racism, as anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia operate in tandem;
  • Other U of T community members who support Palestinian human and civil rights feel scared, silenced, and alienated.

These issues have arisen not only from the University of Toronto’s most recent statement, but also from the University’s broader neglect and erasure of Palestinian community members as an equity-deserving group.

To address these serious issues, we, the undersigned members of your community, request that the University of Toronto:

  1. Release a statement explicitly acknowledging both recent and long-standing violence against Palestinians, and affirming their right to safety, dignity, and freedom.
  2. Publicly support and reaffirm the academic freedom of faculty who are vilified for speaking about Palestine based on their scholarly expertise.
  3. Support Palestinian community members as an equity-deserving group, including: outreach to Palestinian community members, inviting all community members to report incidents of islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, and offering expanded mental and emotional health support to impacted Palestinian students.
  4. Commission a Presidential, Provostial, and Vice-Presidential Working Group to make recommendations to support the University’s response to anti-Palestinian racism, just as the University has commissioned working groups to address antisemitism, anti-Black racism, and anti-Asian racism.

We ask that the university uphold its integrity as Canada’s leading research institution, and its commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, by providing a public response to this letter by Thursday, October 19, 2023.

You can add your name (and see the list of signers) here.

Birzeit University Union of Professors and Employees, Occupied Palestine

We are all Palestinians

2023 will be recorded historically as the year that Palestinians stood boldly in the face of colonial fascism and screamed in defense of their homes, humanity and life. Palestinians as a people have endured over a century of settler colonial violence. We have thrived as a people and shall continue to do so. We do not need to speak of our right to resist, for it is not a right, but a way of being and survival for Palestinians.

Zionism, the settler state and the entire colonial system that is a product of this fascist ideology can no longer falsely hide beneath the cloak of humanism. In Palestine, in 2023, we do not demand our right to narrate. Our ability to narrate was never out of our hands, and resistance in all of its manifestations and forms do not need the preapproval of static international law codes. The oppressed do not need to claim authority over their own oppression, the on-going events of history – our history – is what allows us this authority. We consider it our duty not to expose the bloody barbarism of zionism, their actions as a fascist state and a ruthless army are more than sufficient to undertake this task. It is our duty to record this moment not as its victims, but as the people who will remember, record, survive and resist it.

Our history will tell the story of these acts not only as a record of colonial brutality, but also as a record of our boldfaced determination to live and resist it. We remain attached to our land and in our humanity as Palestinians Arabs – no need to prove our humanity to those who have lost theirs.

It might, nevertheless, be useful to remind ourselves and others of the crimes that have been and are being committed in Palestine – crimes that began with the violent and forceful introduction of zionism onto the land and people of Palestine. This list is long and cannot be summarized in any simple form, but for those who have chosen to stand with the oppressed, in solidarity with our struggle, we ask that you keep these points in mind when speaking to the idea of freedom and liberation – heads and souls raised high, as always, by the duty we have towards the blood of our martyrs and the righteousness of our cause. In compiling this list, we realize that phrases like “war crimes,” “genocide,” “apartheid,” “criminality” and “inhumanity” seem unfit and atrociously insufficient to describe what the state of israel has and continues to do:

 An occupying colonial power cannot claim the right to self-defense against the people under its brutal occupation. There is no moral equivalence between the colonizer and the colonized – however much the media attempts to claim otherwise;

 As is their modus operandi, the israeli military in their war against Gaza has directly targeted our people through the belligerent bombing of homes, hospitals, orphanages, playgrounds, schools, universities, mosques, churches and public spaces deliberately killing any and all Palestinians they can, even targeting the dead in cemeteries. Cutting off and targeting water lines, electricity engines, emergency services, and other crucial services and civilian facilities are the actions of a genocidal power made even more audacious under the irony of zionist claims of their “purity of arms”: this purity clearly only refers to the notion that their weapons are ready for use against all Palestinians all the time;

 The utter criminality of zionist media coverage (adopted globally) that persists in blaming the oppressed for the crimes of the oppressor. The great irony in the zionist claim of victimhood is revealed in the genocide being committed by its military fulfilling their aims at emptying Palestine of Palestinians. While always tragic, these crimes are part and parcel of zionism and not new, for even now, massacres and displacement of Palestinian refugees continues as the world stands by only to bear witness;

 The blatant and boldfaced genocidal racism of israeli political discourse: the pornographic call to death of Arabs by settler zionist politicians across the political lines is fascism and cannot be described as anything but support for further genocidal violence and settler colonial fascism that has defined the history of this ideology;

 The violent construction of the prison of Gaza is the criminal imposition of what is now a sixteen year sentence of solitary confinement for an entire population in the form of the blockade and siege of Gaza;

 The criminalization of resistance including the self-criminalization of the right to resist where all blood that is shed is blamed on the oppressed and all crimes of settler colonial invasion and dispossession are ignored entirely;

 The unfathomable crime of silence and complicity perpetuated by the entire world – including Arab and Muslim regimes under the oppressive power of American impositions — are openly supportive of genocide or mute witness to the crimes of settlers;

 The most blatant american complicity in the genocidal massacre of an entire people. Zionist and american colonials with Arab regimes’ complicity have perpetuated crimes against the Palestinian people that define fascism in the 21st century

 The on-going historic crime of the complete denial of the Palestinian nation’s political right to exist, resist, return, and self-determination;

We Palestinians have a right to our freedom. It is not a right enshrined in the precarious words of law codes, but our human dignity to fight for freedom. Palestinian resistance has been criminalized from the beginning of the settler colonial invasion of Palestine. Now that our resistance has used guerrilla war tactics, we have now become the oppressors?! What is the israeli army fighting to achieve? Unable to counter the resistance fighters, the aircrafts have bombed besieged Gaza targeting nothing and everything at once! Are they trying in vain to continue the genocidal war that began upon the arrival of zionists to our land? Trying to complete the erasure of 1948?

Given all we know and all we have seen, we must act and chose justice and humanity and fight the oppression of colonial degradation. We are all Palestinians now and we must all act immediately against the real criminals and scream in the face of this monster and his barbaric acts. Zionism is a genocidal settler project in Palestine that is built on false mythology and sustains itself on perpetual and endless violence against the native people in Palestine – it should be seen and dealt with as such. Talk of freedom – political, academic or social – fall on deaf ears unless or until the true criminals are called such and dealt with as such.

We in occupied Palestine — and all Palestinians — have no illusions in the poetic dreams of the triumph of the pen over the sword, because the sword has cut too deeply into our flesh at the hands of an enemy who has been granted by the hypocritical international community and the destiny of imperial history to claim a monopoly on both the sword (that which acts to kill) and the pen (that which narrates the acts of killing). As intellectuals and academics working in occupied Palestine, we have to use our words, however futile they may feel in such critical times. We also have faith in the bold souls of our people, our resistance and the triumph of freedom and in our inalienable rights. We recognize and proclaim that at this critical and urgent historical juncture, we shall overcome – justice shall overcome. We are not your passive victims, we have been murdered, maimed and displaced by a setter state driven by an ideology of insane hatred and bloody violence but we will not be silenced. Our resistance shows us the path forward and we remain steadfast and we shall triumph.

11 October 2023

Statement of Unwavering Support for Palestinian People / Déclaration de soutien indéfectible au peuple palestinien

En français ci-dessous

Statement of Unwavering Support for Palestinian People. Stand in solidarity with Palestine!  

(Please Sign here)

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian people. We deplore in the strongest terms the willful neglect of context, the duplicity and the hypocrisy of the so-called ‘international community’ which has remained silent about the normalization of the occupation of Palestine – the longest military occupation in modern history. We deplore the daily violence, killings, imprisonment of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children in Israeli jails, the house demolitions, the so-called ‘settlements’, the daily human indignities suffered by Palestinians, the deprivations of basic necessities of life because of blockades, the house raids at all hours of the day and night. 

A basic tenet of international law is that people under occupation have a right to resist. And throughout these decades of colonization and occupation the Palestinian people have been heroically resisting in both quiet and spectacular ways. By simply living in historic Palestine, Palestinian people have been resisting and continue to resist. Those in the diaspora live the Israeli oppression by being prevented from exercising the right of return. From the standpoint of international law, Israel has been committing war crimes every day of the occupation: by being an occupier, by ‘collective punishment’, by aggression against people resisting occupation, by unlawful detention and imprisonment for years at a time, by denying access to basic necessities of life, by dehumanizing Palestinians.

We decry the governments of the world for their normalizing of the Israeli occupation; for labeling the resistance fighters ‘terrorists’. We demand honesty from them in calling out the actual perpetrators!

What Palestinians have demonstrated since the early hours of Saturday, 7th October was they will never accept occupation, that they will resist no matter the cost. Those in Israel and around the world who want peace must understand this. 

We extend our unwavering support to the Palestinian people and grieve all the lives lost over the last few days and those lost over many decades of expulsion, colonization, occupation, apartheid and wide-spread oppression.   

Israel’s on-going actions are war crimes. Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the 1998 statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) categorically states that “[i]intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival” is a war crime. Similarly UN Conventions, International Humanitarian Law, and the International Committee of the Red Cross all stipulate that deprivation of food, water and the essentials for life for civilian populations are prohibited.    

Israel must cease the bombing of Gaza. Power and water must be restored. Food must be permitted to freely enter Gaza. Israel must end the blockade of Gaza and it must cover the costs of all the infrastructural damage and destruction it has caused. Of course it can never compensate for the loss of life, and the lasting trauma, especially on the children who have lived their young lives under continual siege and deprivation imposed on them by the state of Israel. 

The international community must ensure that international laws and resolutions passed by the UN apply to Israel.

We support self-determination for Palestine and call on conscientious people to lend their unwavering support for the liberation of Palestinian people. Free Palestine! 

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Solidarité avec la Palestine ! Déclaration de soutien indéfectible au peuple palestinien

(SVP signez ici)

Nous, soussignés, sommes solidaires de la Palestine et du peuple palestinien. Nous déplorons avec force la négligence volontaire du contexte, la duplicité et l’hypocrisie de la soi-disant “communauté internationale” qui est restée silencieuse sur la normalisation de l’occupation de la Palestine – l’occupation militaire la plus longue de l’histoire moderne. Nous déplorons la violence quotidienne, les meurtres, l’emprisonnement de milliers d’hommes, de femmes et d’enfants palestiniens dans les prisons israéliennes, les démolitions de maisons, les soi-disant “colonies”, les indignités humaines quotidiennes subies par les Palestiniens, les privations de produits de première nécessité en raison des blocus, les raids sur les maisons à toute heure du jour et de la nuit.

L’un des principes fondamentaux du droit international est que les peuples sous occupation ont le droit de résister. Et tout au long de ces décennies de colonisation et d’occupation, le peuple palestinien a résisté héroïquement, de manière discrète et spectaculaire. En vivant simplement dans la Palestine historique, le peuple palestinien a résisté et continue de résister. Les membres de la diaspora vivent l’oppression israélienne en étant empêchés d’exercer leur droit au retour.  Du point de vue du droit international, Israël a commis des crimes de guerre chaque jour de l’occupation : en tant qu’occupant, par la “punition collective”, par l’agression contre les personnes qui résistent à l’occupation, par la détention illégale et l’emprisonnement pendant des années, en refusant l’accès aux nécessités de base de la vie, en déshumanisant les Palestiniens.

Nous reprochons aux gouvernements du monde entier de normaliser l’occupation israélienne et de qualifier les résistants de “terroristes”. Nous exigeons d’eux qu’ils fassent preuve d’honnêteté en désignant les véritables auteurs de ces actes !

Ce que les Palestiniens ont démontré depuis les premières heures du samedi 7 octobre, c’est qu’ils n’accepteront jamais l’occupation, qu’ils résisteront quel qu’en soit le prix. Ceux qui, en Israël et dans le monde, veulent la paix doivent le comprendre.

Nous apportons notre soutien indéfectible au peuple palestinien et pleurons toutes les vies perdues ces derniers jours et celles perdues au cours de nombreuses décennies d’expulsion, de colonisation, d’occupation, d’apartheid et d’oppression généralisée.  

Les actions menées actuellement par Israël constituent des crimes de guerre. L’article 8(2)(b)(xxv) du statut de 1998 de la Cour pénale internationale (CPI) stipule catégoriquement que “[l]e fait d’affamer intentionnellement des civils comme méthode de guerre en les privant d’objets indispensables à leur survie” est un crime de guerre. De même, les conventions des Nations unies, le droit international humanitaire et le Comité international de la Croix-Rouge stipulent tous que la privation de nourriture, d’eau et des éléments essentiels à la vie des populations civiles est interdite.    

Israël doit cesser de bombarder Gaza. L’électricité et l’eau doivent être rétablies. La nourriture doit pouvoir entrer librement à Gaza. Israël doit mettre fin au blocus de Gaza et couvrir les coûts de tous les dommages et destructions d’infrastructures qu’il a causés. Bien entendu, il ne pourra jamais compenser les pertes en vies humaines et les traumatismes durables, en particulier pour les enfants qui ont vécu leur jeune âge sous le siège et les privations continuels imposés par l’État d’Israël.

La communauté internationale doit veiller à ce que les lois et résolutions internationales adoptées par les Nations unies s’appliquent à Israël.

Nous soutenons l’autodétermination de la Palestine et appelons les personnes consciencieuses à apporter leur soutien indéfectible à la libération du peuple palestinien. Libérez la Palestine !

Statements

Faculty in Canada Condemn the Israeli Invasion of Birzeit University & Arrest of Palestinian Students

3 October 2023

Dear Lisa Stadelbauer, Ambassador of Canada to Israel

We write on behalf of Faculty for Palestine (F4P) Canada to condemn the Israeli military’s invasion of Birzeit University (BZU) on September 24, 2023, one day after the start of the 2023-24 academic year. F4P includes over 600 faculty from over 40 universities and 15 colleges across Canada. We condemn in the strongest terms the forcible entrance of undercover Israeli special military forces and military vehicles that laid siege to the campus and arrested 8 Palestinian students on September 24th. The identified students arrested include: Abdulmajid Hassan (the elected Student Council President), Amro Khalil, Abdullah Mohammad, Ahmed Awaidat, Yahya Farah, Mahmoud Nakhleh, Hassan Alwan, and Abdullah Abu Qiyas. We also oppose the violent assault on the university’s security guards and the break in and vandalization of the Student Council’s office at BZU.  

Birzeit University has a long history of fostering education, promoting critical thinking, and providing opportunities for Palestinian students to exercise their right to education, to fulfill their potential, and to pursue their dreams and aspirations. The arrest of these young scholars disrupts their educational journeys and violates their human rights. Palestinian students, like students elsewhere in the world, have the right to education, the right to dissent, and the right to protest and organize in ways they see fit while living under military occupation.

BZU, located in the West Bank, has been subject to military raids, arrest campaigns, and closure since the establishment of the university. In 2022 several Palestinian students were shot at and imprisoned by the Israeli military. The recurring invasions of Palestinian universities, particularly BZU, and the arrests and detention of Palestinian students are a grave violation of the basic right to education and academic freedom. Currently the number of Palestinian students from BZU being held in Israeli prisons exceeds 80. The arbitrary arrest and detention of Palestinian students are not only a violation of the right to education enshrined in Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). They also violate Article 13 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESR). As a signatory of the UDHR and ICESR, Israel is obligated to uphold these rights under international law.

We recognize that these recurring invasions of Palestinian education institutions are an extension of the Israeli military occupation and its systematic policy to besiege and destroy the educational system in Palestine.

We demand the immediate and unconditional release of the arrested BZU students. As academics we also demand that the rights of these students are protected in accordance with international law. In the meantime, we express our unconditional support and solidarity with the arrested students, faculty, and staff of Birzeit University and the BZU Right to Education Campaign, and call for an end to Israel’s military invasions of Palestinian educational institutions.

Sincerely,

Faculty for Palestine – Canada

Endorsing Organization

Hearing Palestine, University of Toronto

CC:

Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs Canada 

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories 

David Da Silva, Canada’s Representative to the Palestinian Authority

Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the rights of opinion and expression 

Yoav Kisch, Israeli Minister of Education

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 

UN Human Rights Office Ramallah 

Dr. Talal Shahwan, President of Birzeit UniversityThe Right to Education Campaign at Birzeit University

Statements

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

Call to Action

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.

Commemoration

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»

Commemoration

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.

Statements

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.

Statements

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).

Statements

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

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