U.S. student encampments for Gaza now number more than 100. Among the newest are those at DePaul University in Chicago, State University of New York at New Paltz, with more and more students, faculty and supporters joining in daily to oppose state repression, police attacks and attempts to criminalize students for expressing their views. The students' militancy and determination are being applauded from Palestine to Yemen, Tokyo and many cities across the world. Students, faculty and staff at the universities are defying violent police raids and successfully maintaining many encampments and establishing more despite arrests of more than 2,000 participants and supporters across the country. Students are daily affirming their rights to speak and organize, backed up by faculty and staff. Everywhere, the encampments have created collective gathering places for discussion, learning, sharing experiences and organizing on many fronts, including providing food and health care, uniting all in action regardless of background, religion or beliefs.

At the Princeton encampment on May 4, a group of students started a hunger strike in support of Gazans, to denounce the famine being imposed by U.S./Israeli actions. They are demanding an end to the genocide and university complicity in it.

The students' persistence is such that encampments which university administrators and police shut down emerge again, including the encampments at Indiana University at Bloomington, Virginia Tech and the University of Southern California. At Indiana University the encampment was shut down twice by university police and state troopers and re-established both times despite more than 50 arrests. As well, more than 500 faculty members, graduate students, and staff rallied there April 29 to demand that President Whitten and Provost Rahul Shrivastav resign.

The encampment at City College of New York (CCNY) Harlem, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) was violently raided by hundreds of police in riot gear on April 30, with more than 170 arrested. The CUNY Students continue to organize, holding teach-ins and demanding that all charges be dropped. They explain that the main reason for the attack was to destroy the collective work, unity, and shared anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist stands of the participants. Encampment activities included daily people's assemblies, live music, art builds, poetry readings, children's craft workshops and political education on topics ranging from the history of the Puerto Rican and Black liberation struggles to the Filipino people's liberation movement, the history of the Palestinian liberation movement, COINTELPRO and more. A food pantry open to all members of the Harlem community, a medical tent, and a peoples' library named after Refaat Alareer, the prominent Palestinian professor and writer who was martyred by Zionist forces in Gaza last December, were established. Local small businesses contributed to student efforts by donating hot meals multiple times a day.

The same sort of organizing is taking place at many encampments across the country and one of the reasons they are being raided is to smash the organizations that students have created.

Students at Northwestern in Evanston, a Chicago suburb, are achieving the goals they set for themselves by speaking out in their own name and presenting concrete demands. In an April 29 statement the students reiterated their call for Palestinian liberation and an end to U.S./Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. They emphasized that their main success has been the expansion of their encampment and the "transformative community space" that they have created where people from all backgrounds and walks of life come to "share knowledge, celebrate culture, and join in religious services for Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities." The agreements achieved with the university include having Northwestern disclose investments supporting Israel and any vendors on campus that support the Israeli military and apartheid. The university will invest in the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities on campus and support students and scholars from Gaza. The demands so far achieved represent "the floor for negotiations, not the ceiling," students said. Students have also taken the initiative to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to ensure they get full information on university complicity in genocide. Their encampment remains, minus tents. "Our eyes are on Gaza. To the children who will see a free Palestine in their lifetimes: we will not stop fighting for you," they said.

Students at Evergreen College in Washington State reached an agreement with the administration for securing university divestment, refusal of grants that "facilitate illegal occupations abroad, limit free speech, or support oppression of minorities," and an alternative "non-law enforcement model for 24-hour crisis response." A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides for student and faculty-led task forces to implement the agreement. It requires the president to make a public statement that defends the rights and free speech of students, calls for a ceasefire and expanded humanitarian aid for Gaza and the release prisoners being held without due process, referring to the thousands held by Israel with no charges. Students at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, also secured plans for university divestment.

Violent and Brutal Police Attacks

Police raid student encampment at University of California at Los Angeles, May 2, 2024

Police attacks on students on dozens of campuses have been violent and brutal. They were stepped up after President Biden emphasized that "order must prevail" on the campuses and "rule of law" be upheld — something his administration has systematically been destroying.

On May 2 police violently attacked the peaceful encampment at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), firing tear gas and rubber bullets. This followed an hours-long violent attack by Zionists on the encampment while police and university officials did nothing. The latest attack came after earlier efforts by the Zionists to block the organizing in support of Palestine and for a ceasefire in Gaza.

UCLA student newspaper the Daily Bruin reported that on April 30, "Fireworks, tear gas and fights broke out just after 10:50 pm Tuesday night and continued early Wednesday morning as around 100 pro-Israel counter-protesters attempted to seize the barricade and storm the ongoing Palestine solidarity encampment in Dickson Plaza." Police then raided the encampment, arresting more than 200 people. They used massive amounts of tear gas and flash bang grenades that use light and sound to stun and disorient people. Bulldozers were brought in to dismantle the encampment. Students leaving jail were nonetheless undeterred. "We are not done," they said. Encampments at University of California Irvine and Riverside continue.

On May 6, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, bordering Boston, pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing the encampment broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there. High school students from across Boston walked out of class to join the MIT student encampment in response to the increasing police repression. They joined a sit-in with MIT students that temporarily blocked Massachusetts Avenue, a main thoroughfare, during rush hour, chanting Free Free Palestine!

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, students reestablish Gaza encampment previously dismantled
by police, May 6, 2024

Police earlier raided the encampments at Northeastern and Emerson in Boston, arresting more than 200. At Emerson, a new city ordinance directed against the homeless pitching tents was used. Homeless people and advocates have often joined the student encampments to support Palestine and their rights to housing.

The Emory encampment in Atlanta, which also opposes Cop City, the giant police training center for urban warfare, and Atlanta police ties to the Israeli military, was also raided. University of Texas-Austin saw brutal police raids and arrests, as did many other campuses across the country.

The student encampments and resistance to police attacks have broad public support. When the encampment at Columbia University in New York city was violently raided by hundreds of police in riot gear on April 30, as at CUNY, people came from all over the city to rally in defence of the students. Hundreds of students and supporters were arrested at Columbia, so protesters then went to demonstrate at the jail in solidarity. Columbia has now canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony originally scheduled for May 15, and will hold smaller ones. The university remains occupied by hundreds of police in riot gear, at present expected to remain until May 17, after graduation.

New York Police lined up for raid on CUNY, April 30, 2024

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has justified the police violence and promoted New York Police Department (NYPD) ties with the Israeli police. "We will not be intimidated by these brutal and spineless tactics," students from the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment emphasized. "We take our lead from the steadfast resistance of the Palestinian people." The encampment at New York University remains.

Government officials and media try to make it appear the encampments are based on "outside agitators," while students make clear this is an effort to divert from the success of the student organizing and the wide public support they have gained, not only in New York City but in cities across the country. People join in activities and demonstrations, bring food, tents, blankets, books and medical supplies, write letters condemning university officials, and more.

Everywhere students, faculty, staff, and community supporters are standing strong in their demands to end U.S./Israeli genocide, end university complicity in it, and for an immediate ceasefire and freedom and self-determination for Palestine.

University of Chicago, students rally following police attack on encampment, May 7, 2024

For an interactive map showing the locations of student encampments click here.

Denounce Government Targeting of Students and Institutions of Liberal Education Using Claims
of Anti-Semitism

– Kathleen Chandler –

Students at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City, Gaza Encampment, May 7, 2024

Students, professors, staff and people across the U.S. are rejecting government efforts to criminalize the more than 100 student encampments for Palestine as being anti-Semitic and violent. Students and faculty on campus after campus have brought to the fore that opposing genocide is defending humanity and contributing to the well-being of all. Their encampments embrace this spirit and are welcoming and organizing centres for the rights of all.

President Biden has repeatedly promoted the claim that standing for Palestine is anti-Semitic, as have members of the House of Representatives. The House is passing legislation and is interrogating university presidents, claiming they need to do more to "protect Jewish students" and oppose support for Palestinian resistance, which representatives claim are "calls for genocide." They specifically target the slogans Long Live the Intifada and From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free. Both are well-known to speak to self-determination for Palestine, which stands against genocide. These efforts are not only serving to divert from the daily U.S./Israeli genocide but also put university administrators on the defensive to "do more" or be branded anti-Semitic. This is being widely opposed by students and faculty who persist in their just struggles in support of Palestine.

On May 1 the House of Representatives passed a bill titled the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act by a large majority of 320 to 91. It now goes to the Senate. The bill is in keeping with Biden's attacks on the public's broad and growing opposition to genocide and the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians, most of them women and children, as well as the unprecedented deliberate destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure. The bill is an attempt to make legal the violence of Zionists in the U.S. and Palestine and enshrine in law that opposition to Zionism and the Zionist Israeli state is anti-Semitic. This goes against not only the peoples worldwide who are standing with Palestine, but UN resolutions and stands which long ago determined that Zionism is racism. The bill strengthens the stranglehold on the political power in the U.S. of racist, reactionary Zionists, including Biden who repeatedly says he is a Zionist, and all reactionary forces, as well as strengthening their impunity.

On April 30, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House Committee on Education and the Workforce's investigation into anti-Semitism on college and university campuses will now become a House-wide probe. Johnson, flanked by leaders of several important House committees, vowed to hold university leaders accountable for "their failure to protect Jewish students." University administrators from Yale, UCLA, and the University of Michigan will be forced to testify at a May 23 committee hearing. This is the same McCarthy-style committee that grilled Harvard and University of Pennsylvania presidents in December, claiming they were "soft" on anti-Semitism, with both forced to resign shortly after. Columbia's president was interrogated April 17, the day on which the Columbia encampment was established. She called for the first police raid on the campus the next day and an even more brutal one April 30 and now has police occupying the campus.

These actions by the House are consistent with Biden's claims that the student encampments are endangering the safety of Jewish students. In his latest statement he said students have "the right to walk across campus safely without fear of being attacked," even though the only attacks have been carried out by Zionist provocateurs and the police. Everywhere the encampments have become gathering areas for collective discussion and learning together for students of all religions and backgrounds. It is this unity and firm stand of the students and faculty against genocide and in support of Palestine and their increasing rejection of the existing electoral set-up which blocks the majority from having a say that Biden and Congress fear.

Despite all evidence to the contrary Biden claimed, "We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or we squash dissent." Evidence shows that there is a complete lack of safety for those at the encampments subject to the attacks of police brought in to quell dissent. With a green light from Biden, police in city after city have violently raided student encampments, terrorizing students with tear gas, flash bang grenades, pepper spray, rubber bullets and mass arrests. Still, according to Biden, the issue is violence of the students, not police, not the U.S./Israeli genocide including mass killings and destruction in Gaza.

Biden's statements, along with actions by Congresspeople, make clear that the target is both those standing up to support Palestine and oppose U.S./Israeli genocide and impunity and the institutions entrusted with providing a liberal education consistent with the requirements of a civil society said to serve the public good.

The U.S. has long-since stopped being such a society. Nonetheless, what we are witnessing at this time is the desperation of the narrow private interests which have seized the state's decision-making power at all levels of government to destroy all the institutions of a civil society, its infrastructure and legal and constitutional guarantees. Whether it is via the insidious and criminal so-called rules-based methods used by the Biden administration and espoused by the Democratic Party, or the smash-everything methods used by Trump and his adherents, the aim is the same -- which is to smash whatever fetters lie in the way of the narrow private interests seeking to control everything on the world scale.

After destroying the role of the media to impart information which creates public opinion and undermining the job of public schools to impart general knowledge to students which promotes a common world view about the U.S. and what it stands for -- also a component in the creation of public opinion -- and with the failure of the legislatures to debate policy in a manner which helps create public opinion, the Biden administration is set on undermining the institutions of higher learning. These institutions were created to impart liberal education which sustains the conception of liberal democratic institutions, civil society and public good. It is the latest desperate attempt to impose a neo-liberal anti-social offensive which endorses the U.S. striving for global hegemony at a time when the conditions do not exist for any country in the world to accept the U.S. as an "indispensable nation" to which they must submit without question.

It is no accident that the U.S./Israeli genocide has destroyed Gaza's universities and cultural institutions and killed scholars, doctors, writers, poets, journalists, humanitarian personnel and patriots as well as civilians on a massive scale. It is similarly no accident that international rule of law, the convention on refugees and humanitarian law are smashed on the basis of the use of force and positions of power and privilege because all of these are integral to guaranteeing civil societies based on what was called peace, order and good government. This is seen in the latest U.S./Israeli announcement that after smashing the current Rafah crossing with Egypt to smithereens in an effort to wipe out Hamas, a private firm comprised of former U.S. elite mercenary soldiers will be put in charge of the crossing.[1]

Civil society is under attack and the battle for democracy is the order of the day. This is the battle to uphold all democratic norms and institutions, as the student encampments, faculty, staff and community supporters are doing. It is also making way for the battle of democracy. This is the battle of democratic renewal, of replacing with new mass democratic forms all the arrangements that block society's path to progress, something which the oligarchs who have seized power are dead set on not permitting. This makes the resistance battle of the students on all the campuses even more significant and worthy of encouragement.

Governments of police powers such as those which have taken over in the U.S., Israel, Canada, Britain and other countries operate by demanding unfettered impunity. This makes them dangerous and resistance necessary. The crimes they are committing are also their death knell because the violence, impunity and unprecedented open and blatant criminality are bringing to the fore the necessity for both the battle for democracy and the battle of democracy. Both of these developing struggles represent the striving of humanity for peace, freedom and a democracy of their own making -- and they will prevail.

Evidence of this is the militant stand taken by the American Association of University Professors which pointed out that the state attacks promoted by the Biden administration are a "political attack intended to dismantle higher education in service to the public interest, and make our institutions beholden only to corporate, political and private interests."

Education, like the media, plays a role in forming public opinion and governments of police powers require that public opinion designed to maintain a public order and civil society be eliminated and any thought of government for the public good destroyed. The aim of their disinformation is to destroy the public form of the body politic so that their rule cannot be effectively challenged in any way. The growing student encampments and support from faculty and staff in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia and elsewhere are standing against this. The determined support for Palestine worldwide cannot be legislated out of existence and nowhere are people accepting criminalization of those standing up for Palestine. It is an important historic struggle which commands ever broader support.

Note

1. The Times of Israel, citing Haaretz, said on May 7 that the plan "is to transfer control of the key (Rafah) crossing to a private American security firm" after the Israeli military "concludes the offensive." The paper added that "negotiations are ongoing with the unnamed company, which employs former elite U.S. soldiers and is an expert on securing strategic sites in Africa and the Middle East. Israel and the US will help the firm if needed."

In a statement issued the next day, the Palestinian Follow-up Committee for National and Islamic Forces said it "will not accept from any party the imposition of any form of guardianship on the Rafah crossing or others, and considers this a form of occupation." Any plan of this type "will be dealt with as we deal with the occupation," the statement added. "We call on the Arab League and Islamic countries, especially the brothers in the Arab Republic of Egypt, given their weight on the international and regional levels, to reject any plans and attempts that affect Palestinian-Egyptian sovereignty over the Rafah crossing," the Committee said. "We urge all parties to reject any form of cooperation with such plans, as the management of internal affairs is a purely Palestinian matter that is agreed upon nationally through the mechanisms agreed upon," the Palestinian Follow-up Committee for National and Islamic Forces emphasized.

Solidarity with Palestine at Educational Institutions in Canada and Quebec

Valiant Fight of Students to Maintain McGill Encampment for Gaza

Students from McGill and Concordia universities, like students across the United States and Canada, set up a camp on McGill campus on April 27. Since then encampments in support of the Palestinian people have been established at the University of Ottawa, Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, the University of Toronto, McMaster University in Hamilton, the University of Windsor, the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, the University of Calgary, the University of British Columbia's Point Grey Campus, the University of Victoria and Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo. Students at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John have an ongoing daytime encampment, while day-long events have also taken place at Toronto Metropolitan University, the University of Western Ontario in London, the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec. At the University of Toronto on the evening of May 2, hundreds came out to support the encampment, standing ready against the possibility of provocations by a Zionist counter-protest.

At McGill on April 27, a spokesperson from the Society for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill addressed the weekly march against the Zionist genocide in Palestine called by the Palestinian Youth Movement as it arrived to support them. He explained that a student referendum, with broad participation, had overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on McGill to divest from companies profiting from the genocide of Palestinians and to sever ties with Israeli academic institutions after the Zionists' total destruction of universities and schools in Gaza. The response of the University was to attempt to decertify SPHR McGill.

After months of refusal by the McGill administration to have any discussion about its role in supporting genocide, the students decided they needed to step up their fight for their demands. The decision was taken to establish the encampment to express their refusal to have their tuition fees used for the murder of others. Students of all backgrounds, Jewish, Palestinian and countless others, as well as professors and teaching staff, are determined to stand together until their demand for divestment is met. Their unity and their refusal to succumb to provocations puts the lie to the outrageous, unsubstantiated accusations that they are anti-Semitic and are bullying and intimidating fellow students.

Any violence and intimidation originate with the McGill administration, the Zionists, and Quebec Premier Francois Legault and his administration. On April 29, it was the University administration that called on the Montreal police to dismantle the encampment.

On April 30, lawyer Neil Gary Oberman, acting on behalf of two unnamed pro-Israel McGill students, requested the Quebec Superior Court grant an injunction banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations within 100 metres of McGill properties. McGill claims to own some 150 buildings in the city which means that should such an injunction be granted it would effectively ban demonstrations in downtown Montreal. In seeking the injunction, Oberman argued that support for Palestine created a "hostile, aggressive and violent" atmosphere through use of slogans such as From the Sea to the River, Palestine will Live Forever!

On May 1 the court rejected the request for the injunction. People noted that Oberman is a shareholder in the civil and commercial litigation group of the Spiegel Sohmer law firm. Spiegel Sohmer posted a notice on their website on October 8, 2023 that "Spiegel Sohmer is supportive of its Jewish clients and colleagues and stands united with the Jewish people and Israel..."

Meanwhile, claims by the McGill administration and the CBC of having evidence of "safety" issues have gone unsubstantiated, while Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel could only refer to "comments from students who don't feel safe," without specifying what comments he was referring to.

On May 2, a group of about 100 Zionists gathered on the sidewalk outside McGill, hurling abuse at the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, defending the genocide being committed by Zionist Israel and calling on police to dismantle the peaceful encampment. At the same time, without any legal grounds, the Quebec Premier declared that the McGill protest was illegal and called on police to use whatever means necessary to put an end to it. His remarks followed those of Quebec Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Dery, who said on April 30 that the McGill administration "did the right thing" by asking the police to dismantle the encampment.

On May 3, the Quebec Federation of University Professors (FQPPU) issued a statement in which Premier Legault's call to deploy police against the students was rejected. "In a free and democratic society, it is not up to the political authorities to give orders to the police on operational matters," said Professor Madeleine Pastinelli, President of the FQPPU in the statement. "For the Premier to attack demonstrators' freedom of expression by calling on the police to intervene against them sets a dangerous and worrying precedent." She noted that the Superior Court ruled against an injunction against the encampment "As there was no evidence of any threat to anyone's safety, the court concluded that the demonstrators' rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly should prevail." She concluded by saying, "University campuses have always been places where ideas clash, sometimes vigorously."

Neither the rainy weather nor any of these provocations and attempts to criminalize them and violate their rights to speech and assembly have dampened the determination of the students to achieve their aims. So far there has been no action to dismantle the encampment. In fact the encampment has grown five times larger and continues to provide a welcoming and learning atmosphere for all.

Montreal students have expressed their profound appreciation for the broad public support they are receiving. People drop by at all hours of the day and night to bring supplies including food, water, tents and sleeping bags, to encourage the students and express moral support. On the evening of May 1 supporters gathered to defend the encampment against a possible police raid. The next morning, hundreds of supporters, including students, seniors, young Jewish families and Palestinians gathered to stand with the demonstrators again. A similar emergency support rally was held May 3.

There is broad support for the students and their demands for an end to the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza and Canada's support for it, and for the administrations of both Concordia and McGill to end their complicity with the genocide by divesting from all companies profiting from these crimes and severing ties with all Israeli academic institutions.

Statement from Jewish Organizations at Student Encampment at McGill

– Independent Jewish Voices at McGill and Concordia Universities –

We, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) at McGill and IJV Concordia Universities, write as Jews of conscience who condemn in the strongest possible terms McGill President Deep Saini's latest email. This encampment is an embodiment of the values which Saini pretends to share (but in reality, stands against) – acceptance, tolerance, and unambiguous rejection of any and all forms of discrimination and hatred. The encampment is a testament to the power of Montreal's diverse student community, as it is the product of the collaboration of Jewish, Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Christian community members, community members of all races, creeds, nationalities, religions, sexual orientations, who stand together in solidarity with the mutual understanding that freedom for one people means freedom for all people.

Jewish students have been part of this encampment from its inception. As your Jewish campers, we wish to reiterate that while strong critiques of Zionism have been made by this camp, as is our legally protected right, this does not constitute anti-Semitism. Accusations of anti-Semitism have been consistently used by the McGill administration to mischaracterize pro-Palestine protests for years. We stand as living proof that their attempts to divide us will not succeed.

Saini's claim that by calling the police on his students he is "protecting the health and safety of all on site" is utterly hypocritical. We all have seen the physically violent ways that the police in the United States have used the power of the state to silence the voices of our fellow students, our peers, fighting for what is right at similar encampments across the past week, and Saini knows this. He is threatening to do the same to us. He is threatening to violently use state-sanctioned violence to silence our voices as Jews.

Saini's threat to call the police on us is inherently a threat of violence against his own students-- the exact opposite of "protecting health and safety." Saini's refusal in this email to concretely cite any evidence or proof of what he calls "obvious anti-Semitism" reveals that he knows he is wrong, that reality does not align with his email. His claims of anti-Semitism mean nothing when he is actively ignoring and suppressing our voices, the voices of a large part of the Jewish community. Right now, it is Pesach [Passover, the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt]. In fact, at the encampment we held a beautiful, harmonious seder on our second night of camping. The encampment was a welcoming religious space of community for us -- the exact opposite of an anti-Semitic space. In celebrating Pesach, we as Jews celebrate the resistance of the Hebrews. In standing for the liberation of Palestine, we are putting the values of Judaism to work. Deep Saini knows nothing of these values, and his unceasing attacks on us Jewish community members who are embracing our religion by standing up against oppression and for what is right is vastly more anti-Semitic than anything that has occurred at our encampment.

(April 30, 2024)

University of Ottawa Palestine Encampment Demands Divestment from Military Monopolies

Students at University of Ottawa are organizing to support Palestine and secure divestment by the university from military monopolies serving the genocide in Gaza. Students explain that the university is actively enabling and funding the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the continued occupation of Palestine through their investments in various corporations. These include Scotia Bank, the largest shareholder in Elbit systems, the infamous Israeli weapons company that advertises their weapons as field tested on Palestinians in Gaza. The bank also invests in Axon Enterprise, a company involved in the illegal surveillance of Palestinians.

The University of Ottawa also invests in a company that has a $100 million contract with Elbit systems to provide military jet training devices to the Israeli Air Force. Airbus, another corporation that the university invests in, has extensive ties with Israel and Israeli aerospace industries, notorious for conducting mass bombing campaigns against Palestine.

The university also invests in various companies operating on illegal settlements in the West Bank. Atlas Copco Bookings Holdings, Solar Edge Technology, WP Global and Cisco Systems are a few of them.

Students condemned the brutal Israeli assault on Palestine, the displacement, wounding and killing of thousands, destruction of hospitals and targeting of medical staff. They reject the silence of the University and the Canadian government in the face of these crimes.

The students continue to stand up for Palestine and are demanding full disclosure of direct and indirect investments and divestment from any corporation involved in genocide and illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

University of Toronto Students Organize Encampment for Palestine

At 4:00 am May 2, scores of University of Toronto (U of T) students set up an encampment on King's College Circle at the university to support Palestine and demand that U of T disclose its investments and divest from companies that supply the Israeli military -- companies that are engaged in a genocide against the people of Gaza and all Palestinians. In doing so they joined students across Canada, the U.S. and around the world.

On the evening of the same day more than 2,000 people including University of Toronto alumni, faculty and community members held a rally to support the just stand of the encamped students. Union members from the U of T faculty union, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Toronto local of the United Steelworkers, Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and others took part in the rally as well as activists from Independent Jewish Voices and other organizations. Since the encampment began many community members have visited the students to provide food and other necessities and express their support.

In response to threats from the U of T administration which says that the encampment is illegal because it is on private property, the students point out that U of T is built on lands stolen from the Indigenous Peoples. The university administration has also tried in various ways to harass the student protesters including keeping floodlights at King's College Circle on throughout the night, shutting access to washrooms in nearby campus buildings and threatening to call in the police.

Dozens of U of T faculty have visited the camp every day to stand with the students in opposing genocide and upholding their right to organize politically and exercise their rights to conscience, assembly and expression. Deb Cowen, a professor from the Department of Geography and Planning and a member of the Jewish Faculty Network, stated that faculty wanted to be at the encampment "as a presence and [to] be visible for the students. We want to make sure that we're saying to the city, to the administration, and to the wider world, faculty support our students and faculty support the fundamental right of students to be here doing what they're doing."

(TML Correspondent, The Varsity)

Encampment at McMaster Joins in Defending Gaza

Students at McMaster University have organized an encampment for Palestine and are calling on the university to divest from companies supporting the U.S./Israeli genocide. Several demonstrations have been held on campus supporting the resistance in Gaza, including in front of President Farrar's office. Students say that the encampments spreading across Canada and the U.S. will persist and students and faculty will pursue their demands for the end to complicity of academic institutions in apartheid, occupation, and genocide.

Students denounce the silence of the McMaster University administration and its failure to take a stand against scholasticide, in support of academics and students in Gaza whose universities have been obliterated. The statement from McMaster University Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (MUSPHR) calls on the administration to uphold their duty to oppose this wrecking of the education system in Gaza. It states, "As you face your moral duty and work to uphold the preservation of knowledge, you must do everything in your might to take a principled stance against this deliberate scholasticide." It adds, "Your silence, McMaster University, has rendered you a passive bystander to the genocide of the Palestinian people. By observing the ongoing scholasticide of a whole generation of students, educators, and academic infrastructure without condemnation, you have become complicit through your inaction."

The statement quotes from an open letter from Birzeit University in Palestine to international academic institutions, dated October 15, 2023:

"Birzeit University calls upon the international academic community, unions, and students to fulfill their intellectual and academic duty of seeking truth... and holding the perpetrators of genocide and those complicit with them accountable." The letter condemns Israeli universities for their role in contributing to the development of weaponry, military doctrines, and legal justification for the mass killing of Palestinians. It concludes, "Birzeit University urges the international community to immediately intervene to stop this barbaric aggression" and to defend "Palestinians from the dramatic escalation of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing throughout all of Palestine." Students, faculty and staff at McMaster, like many others, answered that call.

The statement also points out that when the struggle against South African apartheid was raging, McMaster also failed to take a stand against it. The statement from MUSPHR concludes by demanding that McMaster University condemn Israel's scholasticide and complete destruction of Gazan society and call for an immediate ceasefire. It also demands, "That McMaster University terminates any and all relationships that might be connected to 'plausibly genocidal acts' within the terms of the International Court of Justice ruling, including your recruiting and/or financial relationships with weapons manufacturers."

Ontario Faculty Oppose Ministerial Dictate of
Bill 166 Targeting Support for Palestine

Many individuals and organizations have spoken out in opposition to Bill 166, which in the name of opposing racism and "hate," serves to target students and faculty supporting Palestine and denouncing U.S./Israeli genocide. Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Jill Dunlop introduced Bill 166, the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024 in the legislature on February 26 and it is currently at third reading. The bill allows the Minister of Education to issue directives to universities that would determine how they deal with issues like racism, including deciding what constitutes anti-Semitism. It is a means to silence students and faculty speaking out in their own name for their rights and especially those in the many current actions supporting resistance in Palestine.

The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), in a statement from April 15, emphasized that "Without speech protections in place, we are concerned that policy directives will infringe on university autonomy, prevent universities from fulfilling their missions, and lead to a more polarized and litigious environment that risks suppressing speech. These issues are especially important as the government has issued directives that have sought to justify interference in the academic governance and autonomy of Ontario's universities. Most recently, we raised concerns with Minister Dunlop in a letter about her naming faculty and students in the Ontario legislature who expressed their views on war in Israel and Gaza. We firmly believe that it is inappropriate to name faculty or students in this manner in the legislature, as it impeded both academic freedom and university autonomy."

The statement brought out that "Policies introduced under this Bill must support the speech rights of students, staff, and faculty, without threats of funding cuts or otherwise withholding financial support, and without discipline. Academic freedom, intellectual inquiry, and democracy itself depend on the ability to engage in respectful debate without risking punishment for teaching and research that does not align with the government's priorities."

In a public letter dated April 16 the Jewish Faculty Network said, in part, "Our opposition to all forms of racism makes section 20 of Bill 166 -- referring to policies and rules regarding racism and hate -- of specific concern. The language included in that section indicates that the Minister may issue directives and timelines regarding topics or elements to be included in the policies or rules of a college or university. Such directives could violate freedom of speech, for instance through a requirement that universities adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) Working Definition of Anti-Semitism and its illustrative examples, a definition which has been widely discredited, including by its own drafter. The problem with the IHRA definition is that it has been weaponized by its proponents to make false charges of anti-Semitism against legitimate criticism of the State of Israel. In a letter now signed by over 210 Jewish faculty from across Canadian universities and colleges, we summarized criticism made of the IHRA definition by multiple groups of experts, including experts in the history of the Holocaust, Israel and anti-Semitism."

The statement warns that "the possible suppression of legitimate protest against Israel's actions through Ministerial directive would impact many students who already experience a great deal of racism, including anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Black racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. If the Minister were to use a directive to impose the discredited IHRA definition against such students, it would only exacerbate their anxiety and alienation. Such a climate will inevitably lead to conditions detrimental to student mental health -- health that Bill 166 purports to protect."

Faculty4Palestine, a Canada-wide solidarity network of academics committed to advancing the struggle for Palestinian liberation, justice and equality through the academic sector also issued a statement of opposition to Bill 166. They say, in part, "This constitutes a radical attack on academic freedom. And it is being carried out in a period in which students and faculty speaking out on Palestinian rights and in opposition to the current genocidal war on Gaza are being harassed, sanctioned and otherwise silenced. Given the current government's adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, and the fact that its Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities' recently named specific pro-Palestine faculty and students in the Ontario legislature -- a move that invited doxing [the deliberate release of private information online without consent] and harassment -- Faculty4Palestine understands Bill 166 as not only an attempt to reverse the 100-year-old principle of university self-governance. It is also a continuation of a decades-long "silencing campaign" that seeks to extinguish voices of Palestinian resistance and solidarity." They call on academics to join the letter-writing campaign to Stop Bill 166.

The Coalition Against Political Interference in Public Research and Education in Ontario launched a letter-writing campaign on Actionnetwork.org for individuals to write to Ontario MPPs on Bill 166 which, it says, "demonstrates the Ford government's continued failure to understand mental health and anti-racism, and its insistence on trying to control post-secondary institutions rather than fund them." In its appeal to Stop Bill 166 the coalition says that "[Bill 166] also constitutes a degree of political interference unheard of in Ontario post-secondary institutions. The protection of universities from political interference is not only legally enshrined in the University Acts but also internationally recognized to be a cornerstone of democracy. University autonomy safeguards academic freedom and the development of rigorous, critical, innovative research and education that academic freedom allows -- including in the areas of mental health and anti-racism." To send a letter click here.

Ontario Teachers Demand Their Pension Plan Stop Funding Israeli War Crimes

A number of active and retired teachers from Ontario's K-12 education system attended the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) on April 18 to demand answers about whether their pension monies continue to be invested in companies that produce weapons, aircraft and components for the Israeli military.

The teachers indicate that after discovering from its December public filings that OTPP had investments in two major arms manufacturers, Raytheon (now RTX) and Textron, which provide weapons and aircraft to the Israeli military that it uses to attack Palestinians, large numbers of them wrote to the pension plan to inquire about and demand an end to any such investments. None of the Plan's officials responded.[1]

The teachers then organized to use OTPP's AGM to hold President and CEO Jo Taylor and other Plan officials to account. One teacher asked how they could justify investing in weapons that have been used by the Israeli military "to destroy or damage more than 78 per cent of the schools in Gaza, wound more than 800 teachers and kill more than 250 of our fellow teachers." He asked them to explain how investing in weapons that destroy an entire education system is part of OTPP's commitment to "beneficial social impacts."

Others asked why there was no screening in place for weapons companies and whether or not OTPP had a written policy to ensure compliance with the Genocide Convention and International Human Rights Law. They repeatedly asked Taylor to give them a clear answer as to whether or not OTPP continued to have RTX and Textron in its portfolio as its December public listing showed, a question he would not answer. This prompted one teacher to declare indignantly that all they were left with then was the assumption that OTTP officials supported funding genocide.

Another rose to quote a renowned plastic surgeon who, after spending more than a month working in Gaza hospitals during October and November, denounced those engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of weapons which he called "instruments of brutalism." In what had by then become a raucous atmosphere, several people started yelling "Shame!"

Note

1. According to investigations carried out by the American Friends Service Committee's Action Center for Corporate Accountability, cited in the teachers' written statement, RTX (formerly Raytheon), a U.S. company, is one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the world and supplies the Israeli Air Force with guided air-to-surface missiles for its F-16 fighter jets, as well as cluster bombs and bunker busters, which have consistently been used against Gaza's civilian population and infrastructure. Textron is also a U.S.-based military contractor. The Israeli Air Force 100 Squadron, which has supported Israel's military ground troops in Gaza, uses multiple Textron aircraft, including the Beechcraft King Air, Queen Air, RC12-D Guardrail, and Bonanza A-36.

"No Profits from Palestinian Death" Campaign

Current and retired teachers who took the leadership of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) to task at the April 18 Annual General Meeting (AGM) have also launched the campaign "No Profits from Palestinian Death." They indicate in a statement that OTPP's presumed continuing investment in weapons manufacturers like RTX and Textron are a direct violation of the express policy of the plan's affiliates. For example, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) has a policy that states explicitly: "Pension plans to which OSSTF/FEESO members contribute should not invest in companies that contribute to killing, torture, deprivation of freedom, or other violations of human rights."

A policy of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association states: "Wherever possible and reasonable the plan [should] not invest in corporations or their subsidiaries, domestic or foreign, that produce munitions, armaments, or technologies of war, and [should] divest itself of any current holdings in said corporations."

All of this, they say, requires heeding the International Court of Justice and the many international human rights law and genocide scholars who have said Israel is very likely using weapons they believe their pension monies are invested in to commit genocide.

The teachers write that under OTPP's "responsible investment" policies, it has committed to "an ongoing process to identify and assess companies associated with severe controversies." They then ask what controversy could be more severe than one relating to genocide?

Given their pension plan's stated holdings in two major arms manufacturers that are "directly complicit in the killing of over 12,000 children in Gaza, leaving thousands more with life altering physical and mental injuries," the teachers maintain that they have the duty, as do the leaders of the four teacher affiliates that comprise the Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF), to demand that OTPP divest from these companies immediately.

As part of their ongoing campaign, the teachers are encouraging members to write the OTPP and the OTF to demand that their pension plan fulfil its duty by divesting immediately from weapons manufacturers that directly contribute to and profit from the U.S./Israeli genocide on Palestinians. An information form and template for a letter can be found on the World Beyond War Canada website here.

University of Calgary Encampment Demands Divestment from Israel

An encampment was established at the University of Calgary by the Calgary Student Movement on May 9 protesting the university's ties to Israel. In solidarity with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, the Calgary Student Movement demands complete and permanent divestment from all corporations involved directly and indirectly in the surveillance, occupation, and murder of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. The encampment, which the students have labeled the Mohkinstsis Liberated Zone, will stay in place until the university meets the group's demands.

The student-led group says its intention is to draw the university's senior leadership's attention to their demands after a letter sent to the university's President Edward McCauley and Interim Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Penny Werthner, received no answer.

The students' demands are:

1. That the university fully disclose all of its direct and indirect investments, as well the sources of donations made to the university.

2. That the university fully disclose its decision-making process for choosing investments.

3. Complete and continued divestment from corporations that develop military technology in order to profit from wars globally, all corporations that play a role in suppressing Indigenous Peoples globally, and all corporations that have links to regimes under investigation by the International Criminal Court.

4. A full academic boycott of institutions complicit in the occupation of Palestine and oppression of Palestinians.

5. The provision of academic and mental health support for Palestinian students.

6. That the university adopt an Anti-Palestinian Racism Definition on campus with a zero-tolerance policy.

7. Recognition of the Palestinian genocide and a public statement condemning the atrocities committed by Israel.

"UCalgary should be a place of learning and community and not be invested in genocidal violence. There are no functioning universities left in Gaza and students just like us are being killed everyday. This has to stop," Ryn LaRoux of the Calgary Student Movement said.

Universities around the world such as Trinity College Dublin and the University of Barcelona have agreed to divest from Israel following student protests, the group informed, and Evergreen College in the U.S. will vote on divestment in October.

Statement of Solidarity with the University of British Columbia Encampment for Gaza

– Jewish Faculty Network-UBC –

We write as the UBC chapter of the Jewish Faculty Network to strongly support the rights of the UBC students in the encampment to peacefully protest in solidarity with Palestine. As Jews, we are appalled by the death, destruction and displacement that Israel has brought upon the people of Gaza, including the killing of more than 30,000 people, nearly half of whom were children, and the destruction of the healthcare system. As academics, we are shocked by the obliteration of all universities in Gaza.

We reject the misleading notion that these protests, or other protests against Israel, are inherently anti-Semitic. Neither are displays of Palestinian cultural and political identity, including keffiyehs and Palestinian flags. The conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is a dangerous and bad-faith tactic that has been used to repress critics of Israel, including many Jewish people like ourselves.

A number of Jewish faculty (including some wearing obvious symbols of Jewishness) visited the UBC encampment and found the mood welcoming and friendly. Many other Jewish students and community members are actively involved. The encampment has made it very clear in their community guidelines and external communications that anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination are strictly prohibited.

Calls for police force to be used against students, in order to protect against an unsubstantiated threat to Jewish students should be treated with the very greatest skepticism and concern. Having seen the unnecessarily violent response to peaceful encampments across North America, we are extremely concerned for the safety of students at UBC.

We hope that those who feel uncomfortable about current protests will consider learning more about the conditions the students are protesting, and about the broader histories of non-violent protest, in Palestine and Israel, as well as within the Palestinian and Jewish diasporas. We especially encourage the reading and open discussion of literature and journalism by Palestinian writers.

As people who have dedicated our lives to supporting students in their pursuit of higher education and in their development as human beings, our students are constantly teaching and challenging us. We certainly do not have to agree with everything our students say or all of their demands. However, it is our responsibility as educators, and the responsibility of universities like UBC, to ensure all learners can exercise their right to free expression, and make their own, difficult decisions about how to fulfill the responsibilities we all have to current and future generations, without the threat of violence, arrest, or suspension.

Our students are inheriting a world in crisis, but they remind us every day that another world is possible. We stand with the UBC students who are trying to bring that world into existence in many different ways, including through protest. We implore the university to rethink its approach to police presence on campus and commit to upholding students' rights.

(May 2, 2024)

Faculty Unions Adopt Divestment and
Boycott Motions

Beginning in March of this year, seven unions representing faculty and other academic staff at universities in Quebec and Canada have so far passed motions in line with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign called for by Palestinian unions. Organizing continues across the country to secure additional motions.

On March 22, the Syndicat général des professeures et professeurs de l'Université de Montréal, became the first to pass a motion calling for a boycott of Israeli universities complicit in Israeli war crimes until Israel complies with all its obligations under international law.

Then on April 12 members of the Windsor University Faculty Association became the first faculty union in Canada to pass a motion calling for their pensions to be divested from companies and investments complicit in Israeli war crimes and illegal occupations. The motion also called for the University of Windsor to completely divest from companies and investments complicit in Israeli war crimes and illegal occupations; implement a complete boycott of Israeli universities and cultural institutions (exchange programs, research collaborations, partnerships, scholarships and fellowships); call for a ceasefire, and foster academic links with Palestinian universities and scholars.

On April 18, members of the Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) Faculty Association passed a motion calling for the University to boycott and divest from all institutions and corporations complicit in Israeli war crimes, breaches of international law and human rights violations, including scholasticide (destruction of the education system) in all Occupied Palestinian Territories (Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem). The motion also calls for strengthening links with Palestinian academics under the auspices of WLU's Scholars at Risk Program.

On April 24, Renison Association of Academic Staff representing faculty at Renison University College, affiliated with the University of Waterloo, adopted a similar motion, including a call for the University of Waterloo to strengthen academic links with Palestinian academic and educational workers in Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as in the diaspora, to support the academic freedom to research, write, speak and teach on Palestinian history, peoples and experiences.

Also in April, the Faculty Association of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver passed a motion to “support the international campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.”

On May 1, at its Annual General Meeting, the University of Saskatchewan Faculty Association passed three motions. The first endorsed the UN's definition of academic freedom, emphasizing the importance of international law and human rights and took a stand in support of "the global movement for an institutional Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the state of Israel." The second condemned Israel’s violence against Palestinian scholars, students, and educational institutions. The third expressed support for Palestinian scholars and students impacted by Israel’s attacks and urged the University of Saskatchewan to provide them with opportunities, scholarships, and financial aid.

On May 7, the Faculty Association at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) voted to investigate the university's academic and financial interests linked to the genocide of Palestinians. Members voted to establish a committee that would "assess TMU’s potential complicity in arming Israel through complicit institutions and corporations," look into divesting from complicit companies, and review (and end) cooperation with Israeli academic and cultural institutions.

The resolution also called for the establishment of academic partnerships with Palestinian universities and scholars.

(Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East)

Call to Action Concerning the Humanitarian
Crisis in Palestine

– Open Letter from Waterloo & Wellington Region Physicians –

The following letter was issued April 28 and is addressed to Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs,) Members of Parliament (MPs), Senators and hospital CEOs in the Waterloo & Wellington Region. It has been signed by more than 100 physicians. For the full list of addressees and signatories, click here.

We are a local group of physicians in Wellington and Waterloo Regions who are greatly concerned with the catastrophic and growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Palestine. We feel immense moral distress over the violence and lack of humanitarian aid that has resulted in over 30,000 deaths, severe food insecurity nearing famine, and the spread of devastating preventable disease. The situation in Gaza has now transcended into a deep humanitarian crisis (1) and we stand together as physicians from multiple backgrounds demanding that Canada not turn its back on the suffering of Palestinians.[1]

Arms Sales

Canada has a moral responsibility to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention (articles 18 & 20), ratified by both Israel and Canada, which states that civilian hospitals and staff must be protected during times of international armed conflict.[2] The International Criminal Court under the Rome Statute decries that deliberately attacking "hospitals and places where the sick and the wounded are collected" in international armed conflicts is a war crime.[3] As physicians, we stand against this violation of international law by Israel.

Canada became a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in June 2019. Under Bill C-47, the amendment to the Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA), "... the Minister of Foreign Affairs must deny export permits applications if he or she has determined that there is a substantial risk that the export would result in a serious violation of international humanitarian law or human rights."[4] On March 18, 2024, a non-binding NDP-led motion was passed by the Canadian Government to stop approving more arms permits to Israel. We ask that Canada stay bound by the motion passed in parliament, and that permits previously approved prior to March 18 are also cancelled.

Humanitarian Aid

We offer our support to our brave and compassionate physician colleagues, who continue to provide medical care despite the risk of being killed. We offer our grief to the hundreds of Palestinian health care workers killed by Israeli forces during this conflict.[5, 6, 7] We express deep concern over the numerous health care workers that have been kidnapped or arrested, as well as our outrage over the destroyed civilian and health care infrastructure in Gaza.[5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]

On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to "take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."[16] Despite this order, according to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza decreased after the ICJ ruling on January 26, 2024.[17, 18] Sally Abi Khalil, Middle East and North Africa Director of Oxfam, said on March 17, 2024: "Israeli authorities are not only failing to facilitate the international aid effort but are actively hindering it."[19]

Even when aid gets into Gaza, it cannot necessarily be accessed safely because of violence.[20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29] As of March 14, 2024, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed trying to reach humanitarian aid.[22] On February 27, 2024, Carl Skau, the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food program warned "there is a real prospect of famine by May, with over 500,000 people at risk if the threat is allowed to materialize."[30] On March 18, 2024, a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) stated that "Famine is imminent as 1.1 million people, half of Gaza, experience catastrophic food insecurity."[31, 32]

Canada must urge Israel to uphold its responsibility under international law to provide aid as an occupying force.[33] We ask the Canadian Government to immediately take action to push for unobstructed humanitarian aid to enter into Gaza, and to strongly encourage our allies to do the same.

The Silencing of Health Care Workers in Canada

As medical professionals, advocacy for human rights is at the core of our values. The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has a framework to identify the key roles a physician must perform to "effectively meet the health care needs of the people we [physicians] serve".[34] One of these seven roles is the role of Health Advocate. Physicians understand that the social determinants of health immensely influence the health of patient populations. During this humanitarian crisis in Gaza all the social determinants of health are being disrupted at an alarming rate. The physical and mental impacts of this war will reverberate onto the people of Palestine for generations to come.

As physicians, staying silent goes against every principle ingrained into our ethical framework as medical professionals. Further, being forced into silence by our peers and the organizations in which we work contributes to our moral distress, grief, and disenfranchisement.[35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40] We reject the claim that criticism of the State of Israel's actions is anti-Semitic. The Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism (specifically Point 13c) clearly rejects the notion that criticisms of the State of Israel constitute anti-Semitism.[41] Further, we stand in solidarity with physicians across the country who have faced professional repercussions and slandering for upholding their principles of respect for human life. We ask that the Canadian Government and Canadian medical institutions (e.g. hospitals, medical schools) cease this willful silencing, intimidation and slander faced by physicians and trainees who are speaking up for Palestinians during this humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Canada is reckoning with its colonial legacy of genocide of the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and needs to repair the immense damage and generational trauma to Indigenous Peoples through Truth and Reconciliation calls to action.[42] We should not forget the uncomfortable and important lessons learned from our own colonial history. We need to use these lessons to inform our current foreign affairs policies in support of Indigenous populations across the world, which include the people of Palestine. We must be mindful of the political, social, and power structures that perpetuate conflict across decades.

The Vision statement of Global Affairs Canada's Action Plan on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples -- 2021-2025, says "In partnership with Indigenous Peoples in Canada and abroad, Global Affairs Canada will advance the rights, perspectives and prosperity of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and around the world".[43]

In summary, we are pleading with our Canadian Government and our local medical institutions to address this catastrophic humanitarian situation and the silencing of our views. Therefore, to the above mentioned individuals in levels of government and medical institutions:

1) We ask that Canada stay bound by the motion passed in Parliament to cease all arms sales to Israel, and that permits previously approved prior to March 18 are also cancelled. We ask Canada to urge our allies to do the same.

2) We strongly advocate for the unobstructed flow of aid into Gaza and encourage our allies to do the same.

3) We ask you to support health care workers who are standing in solidarity with Palestinians during this humanitarian crisis, and oppose efforts to stifle advocacy.

Thank you, and we look forward to your response. Please send your response to: wwdocsforpalestine@gmail.com

Notes

1. Gaza: Excess deaths could exceed 85 000, researchers predict

2. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons In Time of War of 12 August 1949

3. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

4. Conventional weapons, Government of Canada

5. Israel’s unrelenting war on Gaza health care requires urgent action

6. Destroying Gaza's Health Care System Is a War Crime

7. Nearly 600 attacks on health care in Gaza and West Bank since war began: World Health Organization (WHO)

8. I Was a Doctor in Iraq. I Am Seeing a Nightmare Play Out Again

9. Satellite Images Point to Indiscriminate Israeli Attacks on Gaza’s Health Care Facilities

10. Gaza: Unlawful Israeli Hospital Strikes Worsen Health Crisis

11. Gaza-Israel conflict: Hundreds of medics are killed or arrested after intense attacks on health care facilities

12. Gaza: “No health system left,” says Medecins sans Frontiere (MSF)

13. Gaza: BMA calls for urgent investigation into mistreatment of doctors

14. Doctors forced to strip in cold at Gaza’s Nasser hospital, witness says, as IDF announces arrest of Hamas militants there

15. Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care

16. Summary of the Order of 26 January 2024, International Court of Justice

17. Israel Defies Court, Starves Gaza

18. Israel defying ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza

19. Israel government continues to block aid response despite ICJ genocide court ruling, says Oxfam

20. ‘Massacre’: Dozens killed by Israeli fire in Gaza while collecting food aid

21. ‘Death trap’: Israeli forces kill six in new attack on Gaza aid seekers

22. ‘Massacre’: Israel forces attack crowds waiting for aid in Gaza, killing 21

23. ‘Massacre’: Israel forces attack crowds waiting for aid in Gaza, killing 21

24. Israeli forces kill 20 Palestinians waiting for aid, Gaza heath ministry says

25. UN experts condemn Israeli ‘massacre’ of Palestinians collecting flour

26. UN experts condemn ‘flour massacre’, urge Israel to end campaign of starvation in Gaza

27. Israel faces mounting pressure to investigate Gaza food aid deaths

28. Five killed in Gaza aid drop parachute failure - reports

29. Attack kills 20 and injures 155 at Gaza food aid point, as Israel denies responsibility

30. WFP Deputy Chief warns Security Council of imminent famine in northern Gaza unless conditions change

31. GAZA STRIP: Famine is imminent as 1.1 million people, half of Gaza, experience catastrophic food insecurity

32. EU official accuses Israel of weaponizing hunger as report warns Gaza famine imminent

33. Israel defying ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza

34. CanMEDS: Better standards, better physicians, better care

35. Australian medical leadership's silence on Gaza is a moral failure

36. Israel–Palestine: dehumanisation and silencing

37. A chill has crept into Ontario’s health sector when it comes to criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza

38. ‘Abuse of power’: Hospitals, med schools crack down on Palestine advocacy

39. Quebec doctors sign open letter demanding ceasefire in Gaza

40. US and UK doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza

41. The Jerusalem Declaration On Antisemitism

42. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action

43. Global Affairs Canada’s Action Plan on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples - 2021–2025

Photo Review -- April 25 to May 9

Student Youth in Canada, U.S. and Around the World Step Up Their Actions for Gaza

Student Nawar Diab, in an interview broadcast on May 6, 2024 expresses Palestinians' appreciation of the stand taken by students in the U.S. She said, "My message for the American students is that we are extremely proud and their protests and their solidarity with Palestine and with Gaza give us a glimpse
of hope and they didn't leave us alone, they didn't leave us feeling helpless."

UNITED STATES
New York City

Fordham University, May 1

City University of New York, faculty picket demands that charges be dropped against students and
police leave campus, May 6

Columbia University, Faculty form line to protect students, April 30

Students occupy Hamilton Hall, Columbia University, April 30

City University of New York, April 27

City University of New York, April 25

Ithaca, NY

Cornell University, April 25

Princeton, NJ

Princeton University, April 29

Dartmouth, NH

Dartmouth University, May 1

Amherst, MA

Students at University of Massachusetts in Amherst re-establish encampment, May 7

Boston, MA

Northeastern University, April 28

Providence, RI

Brown University, April 30

Washington, DC

George Washington University, April 27

Charlottesville, Virginia

University of Virginia, May 4

Atlanta, GA

Emory University, April 26

Ann Arbor, MI

University of Michigan, April 30

University of Michigan, April 28

Chicago, IL

University of Chicago, police destroy incampment overnight, May 6

University of Chicago, May 5

University of Chicago, May 3

DePaul University, May 5

DePaul University, April 30

Evanston, IL

Northwestern University, April 28

Northwestern University, April 25

St. Louis, MO

Saint Louis University, May 1

Lawrence, KS

University of Kansas, encampment is joined by high school students (bottom), May 1

Phoenix, AZ

Arizona State University, April 27

Los Angeles, CA

University of California at Los Angeles, May 4, Students re-establish encampment after police sweep

University of California at Los Angeles, early hours of May 2, as police launch attack on encampment

University of California at Los Angeles, May 1

California State University at Los Angeles, May 1

San Diego, CA

San Diego State University, May 7

University of California at San Diego, Riot police arrive on campus, May 6

University of California at San Diego, May 1

Santa Cruz, CA

University of California at Santa Cruz, May 1

Berkeley, CA

University of California at Berkeley, May 2

San Franscisco, CA

San Franscisco State University, May 1

CANADA

National Capital Region

May

University of Ottawa, April 30

New Brunswick

Saint John

University of New Brunswick, May 7

Quebec

Montreal

McGill University, May 3

McGill University, April 27

Ontario

Toronto

Evening rally in solidarity with University of Toronto encampment, May 2

Oshawa

Ontario Tech University, May 6

Hamilton

McMaster University, May 6

London

Western University, May 1

Windsor

University of Windsor, May 9

Manitoba

Winnipeg

University of Manitoba, May 7

Alberta

Calgary

University of Calgary, May 9

Edmonton

University of Alberta, April 22

British Columbia

Vancouver

University of British Columbia, April 30

Victoria

University of Victoria, May 3

University of Victoria, May 1

Nanaimo

Vancouver Island University, May 1

EUROPE

England

In Britain, encampments have been established at at least 10 universities -- in Bristol, London, Oxford, Cambridge, Warwick, Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle -- with students and faculty demanding their schools divest from companies complicit in Israeli genocide.

London

University College London, May 2

Cambridge

Cambridge University, May 5

Oxford

Oxford University, May 6

Manchester

University of Manchester, May 1

Encampments at other universities in England, May 1

Edinburgh, Scotland

University of Edinburgh, May 7

University of Edinburgh, May 5

Dublin, Ireland

Trinity College, May 3

Lausanne, Switzerland

University of Lausanne, May 7

Ghent, Belgium

University of Ghent, May 5

Berlin, Germany

Free University of Berlin, May 6

Students dragged away from encampment outside the German Bundestag, April 26

Amsterdam, Netherlands

University of Amsterdam, encampment re-established with twice the number of students, May 7

University of Amsterdam, police tear down encampment and brutalize and arrest students,
overnight May 6

Paris, France

In Paris, France, students at the prestigious Sciences Po university occupied a building overnight on May 2. Police were sent in on the morning of May 3 to clear out protestors, while the campus was shut down. Student protestors shouted, "We ask for justice! We get the police!"

Demonstrators at several universities in France have demanded that administrators more forcefully condemn Israel's military offense in Gaza and review partnerships with Israeli universities and private donors.

Sciences Po University, May 2-3

Gaza solidarity at Sciences Po University, April 26

The Sorbonne, April 29

Lisbon, Portugal

University of Lisbon, May 7

Spain

Valencia

University of Valencia, April 29

Barcelona

University of Barcelona, May 7

Athens, Greece

May 1

ASIA

Palestine

Gaza

April 29

Displaced children in southern Gaza thank students for encampments, May 1

Birzeit, West Bank

Birzeit University students launch Martyrs University for Gaza, May 7

Students at Birzeit University, solidarity with Gaza, April 29

Lebanon

Beirut

University of Beirut, students stand with Gaza, April 30

Rashidieh Refugee Camp

Children's demonstration for Gaza, April 30

Amman, Jordan

University of Jordan, April 30

Sana'a, Yemen

May 3

April 26

Türkiye

Konya

Selçuk University students for Gaza, April 30

Mardin

University of Mardin, April 26

Baghdad, Iraq

University of Baghdad, action in solidarity with Gaza and with U.S. students, May 5

Shiraz, Iran

Shiraz University, students for Gaza, April 30

Karachi, Pakistan

University students demonstrate in solidarity with student encampments and with Gaza, May 1

Chittagong, Bangladesh

Students stand with Palestine, May 6

Tokyo, Japan

Left: Start of encampment, University of Tokyo, April 26. Right: encampment May 2

LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN

Havana, Cuba

University of Havana stands with students in the U.S. and around the world, and the people of Gaza, May 2

San Juan, Puerto Rico

University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, May 6

Mexico City, Mexico

National Autonomous University of Mexico, May 2

San Jose, Costa Rica

University of Costa Rica, May 2

Caracas, Venezuela

University students with Palestine, May 1

OCEANIA

Australia

In Australia, pro-Palestinian students have set up encampments at universities in major Australian cities over the last two weeks to protest Israel's offensive in Gaza. The students are demanding that universities sever all academic ties with Israel and cut off research partnerships with arms manufacturers.

Sydney

Support rally for student encampment, University of Sydney, May 2

Adelaide

Adelaide University, May 4

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Student rally at State University of San Diego, California, May 7, 2024

Violent and Brutal Police Attacks

Police raid student encampment at University of California at Los Angeles, May 2, 2024

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, students reestablish Gaza encampment previously dismantled by police, May 6, 2024

New York Police lined up for raid on CUNY, April 30, 2024

University of Chicago, students rally following police attack on encampment, May 7, 2024

Students at Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City, Gaza Encampment, May 7, 2024

Note

(April 30, 2024)

Note

(May 2, 2024)

(Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East)

Arms Sales

Humanitarian Aid

The Silencing of Health Care Workers in Canada

Notes

1. Gaza: Excess deaths could exceed 85 000, researchers predict

2. Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons In Time of War of 12 August 1949

3. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

4. Conventional weapons, Government of Canada

5. Israel’s unrelenting war on Gaza health care requires urgent action

6. Destroying Gaza's Health Care System Is a War Crime

7. Nearly 600 attacks on health care in Gaza and West Bank since war began: World Health Organization (WHO)

8. I Was a Doctor in Iraq. I Am Seeing a Nightmare Play Out Again

9. Satellite Images Point to Indiscriminate Israeli Attacks on Gaza’s Health Care Facilities

10. Gaza: Unlawful Israeli Hospital Strikes Worsen Health Crisis

11. Gaza-Israel conflict: Hundreds of medics are killed or arrested after intense attacks on health care facilities

12. Gaza: “No health system left,” says Medecins sans Frontiere (MSF)

13. Gaza: BMA calls for urgent investigation into mistreatment of doctors

14. Doctors forced to strip in cold at Gaza’s Nasser hospital, witness says, as IDF announces arrest of Hamas militants there

15. Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care

16. Summary of the Order of 26 January 2024, International Court of Justice

17. Israel Defies Court, Starves Gaza

18. Israel defying ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza

19. Israel government continues to block aid response despite ICJ genocide court ruling, says Oxfam

20. ‘Massacre’: Dozens killed by Israeli fire in Gaza while collecting food aid

21. ‘Death trap’: Israeli forces kill six in new attack on Gaza aid seekers

22. ‘Massacre’: Israel forces attack crowds waiting for aid in Gaza, killing 21

23. ‘Massacre’: Israel forces attack crowds waiting for aid in Gaza, killing 21

24. Israeli forces kill 20 Palestinians waiting for aid, Gaza heath ministry says

25. UN experts condemn Israeli ‘massacre’ of Palestinians collecting flour

26. UN experts condemn ‘flour massacre’, urge Israel to end campaign of starvation in Gaza

27. Israel faces mounting pressure to investigate Gaza food aid deaths

28. Five killed in Gaza aid drop parachute failure - reports

29. Attack kills 20 and injures 155 at Gaza food aid point, as Israel denies responsibility

30. WFP Deputy Chief warns Security Council of imminent famine in northern Gaza unless conditions change

31. GAZA STRIP: Famine is imminent as 1.1 million people, half of Gaza, experience catastrophic food insecurity

32. EU official accuses Israel of weaponizing hunger as report warns Gaza famine imminent

33. Israel defying ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza

34. CanMEDS: Better standards, better physicians, better care

35. Australian medical leadership's silence on Gaza is a moral failure

36. Israel–Palestine: dehumanisation and silencing

37. A chill has crept into Ontario’s health sector when it comes to criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza

38. ‘Abuse of power’: Hospitals, med schools crack down on Palestine advocacy

39. Quebec doctors sign open letter demanding ceasefire in Gaza

40. US and UK doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza

41. The Jerusalem Declaration On Antisemitism

42. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action

43. Global Affairs Canada’s Action Plan on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples - 2021–2025

UNITED STATESNew York City

Fordham University, May 1

City University of New York, faculty picket demands that charges be dropped against students and police leave campus, May 6

Columbia University, Faculty form line to protect students, April 30Students occupy Hamilton Hall, Columbia University, April 30

City University of New York, April 27

City University of New York, April 25

Ithaca, NY

Cornell University, April 25

Princeton, NJ

Princeton University, April 29

Dartmouth, NH

Dartmouth University, May 1

Amherst, MA

Students at University of Massachusetts in Amherst re-establish encampment, May 7

Boston, MA

Northeastern University, April 28

Providence, RI

Brown University, April 30

Washington, DC

George Washington University, April 27

Charlottesville, Virginia

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, students reestablish Gaza encampment previously dismantled
by police, May 6, 2024

UNITED STATES
New York City

City University of New York, faculty picket demands that charges be dropped against students and
police leave campus, May 6

Columbia University, Faculty form line to protect students, April 30

Students occupy Hamilton Hall, Columbia University, April 30

University of Michigan, April 30

University of Michigan, April 28

University of California at Los Angeles, May 4, Students re-establish encampment after police sweep

University of California at Los Angeles, early hours of May 2, as police launch attack on encampment

University of California at Los Angeles, May 1

CANADA

National Capital Region

New Brunswick

Saint John

Quebec

Montreal

McGill University, May 3

McGill University, April 27

Ontario

Toronto