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 (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.

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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, 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

[Download PDF] July 9, 2010

Time for Action: A Response to Israeli Violations of International Law, issued on the 5th Anniversary of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign

A Joint Statement of the BDS working group of Faculty for Palestine (F4P, Toronto) and College and University Workers United (CUWU, Montreal)

The Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza on May 31, 2010 confirms once again Israel’s pattern of disregard for international law. This pattern was brutally demonstrated during the assault on Gaza in December 2008-January 2009, which killed over 1400 Palestinians. Other flagrant violations of international law by the Israeli state include: the construction of the Wall, the ongoing occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the ever-increasing construction of illegal settlements in these occupied territories and the failure, since 1948, to recognize Palestinian refugees’ right of return. Continue reading Time for Action →

[Download PDF]

From: Faculty for Palestine
August 31, 2009

This submission is written to express our strong support for committed work by Members of Parliament against discrimination in all its forms, and our recognition of real concerns that anti-Semitism might be on the rise. However we are deeply concerned that the focus of the CPCCA is defined in such a way as to undermine serious equity work in Canada, while also posing a major threat to freedom of expression. Continue reading Submission to the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism →

[Download PDF] | (In English)

Open Letter to university community regarding Palestinian Rights and Canadian Universities

The last two years have seen increasing efforts to limit advocacy of Palestinian rights on Canadian universities, amounting to a pattern of the suppression of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. These include:

• Statements from 19 university presidents in the summer of 2007 to foreclose debate on the academic boycott of Israel, citing “academic freedom”.
• Visits to Israel by eight university presidents in the summer of 2008, with no equivalent outreach to Palestinian institutions.
• Efforts to ban the use of the term “Israeli Apartheid” at McMaster University in February-March 2008, overturned only through a campaign of protest
• Discipline against students involved in peaceful protests for Palestinian rights at York University in March in 2008
• Attempted discipline against a faculty member who addressed a rally against Israeli Apartheid at York University in 2008
• A pattern of cancellation of room bookings for meetings concerning Palestinian rights at the University of Toronto and York University in 2008
• The use of security clearance requirements and fees to cover security costs to impede campus meetings about Palestinian rights

Continue reading Open Letter: Defend Freedom of Speech →