Canadian Faculty Against the Israeli Attack on Palestinian Universities

Anti-Racism, War/Peace  •  November 29, 2024

Against Scholasticide: York University Faculty Association

In light of the ongoing escalation of violence in Gaza, and more recently Lebanon and the West Bank, and in response to the Unified Call for Justice and Freedom issued by Palestinian higher education institutions in November 2023, and the open letter [see letter below] by Gaza academics and university administrators to the world – urging global solidarity – YUFA members recognize their responsibility to act. Since October 2023, Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza has resulted in more than 42,000 Palestinians dead, including at least 411 teachers, 95 university professors, and three university presidents, and over 100, 000 thousand wounded or missing. This has been described as “scholasticide,” the systematic destruction of Palestinian education by the Israeli state. While global calls for an enduring ceasefire have grown over the last year, Israel has continued its military assault, now expanding its war to Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria and beyond.

Today, every university in Gaza has been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, leaving a devastating impact on students, faculty, and staff members. Approximately 85% of schools have been damaged. Furthermore, much of Gaza’s cultural and heritage institutions and civil infrastructure have been decimated. This targeted Israeli campaign against Gazan academic institutions is part of a larger war, which the International Court of Justice has found presents a real and imminent risk of genocide in Gaza; many leading Holocaust and genocide scholars agree. The severity of destruction to human life as well as to cultural and educational institutions necessitates a resolute response from academics and academic institutions worldwide.

The York University Faculty Association thus:

• Calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the entirety of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Lebanon, and an end to the ongoing scholasticide;
• Calls for a York University-wide audit of financial holdings and investments followed by a divestment campaign from all companies and financial institutions contributing to the occupation of Palestinian territory and war;
• Calls on York University, as well as individual academic units, departments, and faculties, to establish academic partnerships with Palestinian universities and scholars, to enable and support educational opportunities in a region besieged by scholasticide;
• Calls on York University to strengthen and expand initiatives to host and fund Palestinian students and scholars through the Scholars at Risk Program and similar programs;
• Calls for York University to end all cooperation with Israeli academic and cultural institutions contributing to the ongoing war and occupation.

The York University Faculty Association instructs the YUFA executive to:

• Begin an immediate, full and transparent audit of YUFA’s investments and financial ties to all institutions and corporations contributing to occupation and war;
• Based on the audit’s findings, begin a process of divestment from any investments and other financial holdings from all companies contributing to Israeli military industries, as well as the on-going occupation;
• Support the rights of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian students, faculty, and staff engaged in peaceful protests against the ongoing Israeli assault on the Palestinian territory and Lebanon. •

Scholasticide Letter to University Presidents

Dear President,

In light of the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel in relation to grave breaches of the Genocide Convention, we are writing to you on behalf of Faculty for Palestine Canada, the Jewish Faculty Network and the Palestinian-Canadian Academics and Artists Network to request that your university take urgent action to protect and support educators and the education system in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past four months, we have witnessed Israel’s wholesale destruction of the post-secondary education system in Gaza, which is made up of over 625,000 students and about 23,000 teachers and professors, all of whom have been impacted by the war. As of 24 January 2024, Israel has killed 4,327 students and injured 8,109. Further, Israel has killed 231 teachers and administrators and injured 756. The number of students and educational staff killed in such a short period is unprecedented in the region’s history. Those students and teachers who have not been killed are among the more than 1.7 million people who have been forcibly displaced and who are living in overcrowded and unsanitary shelters or sleeping in the open. Like the rest of the population in Gaza, they are at risk of dying of hunger and disease, with no access to food, potable water, electricity, heating or medicine. While our current focus is on higher education, analyzing the broader picture of the Gaza education system reveals a devastating reality of long-term destruction, amounting to what experts term “scholasticide.” Israel has destroyed higher education infrastructure in Gaza on an unprecedented scale, the impact of which cannot be understood without also considering the massive destruction of elementary and secondary school education and staff. Taken together, this illustrates how a whole generation of students, teachers, and infrastructure is being destroyed.

Israeli forces have killed 94 members of Gaza’s higher education community, including numerous internationally respected scholars, deans, university presidents, and medical professors, who comprised part of the region’s intellectual leadership. These include Professor Sufian Tayeh, president of the NL Islamic University of Gaza, who – having won a prestigious fellowship – undertook research as a visitor at the University of Waterloo in 2021. Other scholars who have been killed by Israel are Professor Muhammad Eid Shabir, a microbiologist and Tayeh’s predecessor at the university for 15 years, Dr Said Al-Zubda, president of the University College of Applied Sciences, and Professor Refaat Alareer, who was co-founder of the ‘We Are Not Numbers’ project and one of Palestine’s most prominent intellectuals in Gaza.

Israel has systematically targeted all of Gaza’s universities. On 17 January, Israel blew up Al-Israa University, the last university left standing in Gaza after it was used as an Israeli military base for 70 days. Footage shared by the BBC shows the university being completely destroyed. This act of wanton destruction follows the repeated targeting by Israel of Gaza’s universities since the start of its military operation: the Islamic University was bombed on 11 October; the University College of Applied Sciences was bombed on 19 October; on 4 November, Israeli forces bombed Al Azhar University, the second largest university in Gaza, and this was followed by the destruction of the North Gaza branch of Al Quds University on 15 November. The medical school in the Islamic University was bombed on 10 December. The Palestine Technical College was also bombed and has been severely damaged. Al-Aqsa University was bombed on February 6th, 2024, destroying two buildings, and civilians sheltering in the university buildings were fired at.

In addition to the destruction of universities, as of mid-December 2023, 378 school buildings had been damaged, which amounts to more than 70% of Gaza’s education infrastructure. Israeli soldiers have filmed some of their acts of destruction, including one video that shows the moment the Israeli army blew up a UN school in Beit Hanoun in December. As a result of the destruction of Gaza’s schools, hundreds of thousands of children who have already been deprived of education for several months will not have a school to return to once Israel’s attacks subside. Moreover, Israeli forces have attacked multiple schools serving as temporary shelters, killing Palestinians who sought refuge in them. For example, in November 2023, Israeli forces attacked the UNRWA-run Al-Fakhoura and Al-Buraq schools, killing at least 50 people and wounding many others, while in December 2023, eyewitnesses attested to the execution of 7 people, including children, in attacks on Shadia Abu Ghazala School.

In addition to Israel’s scholasticide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army that is illegally occupying the West Bank has been actively dismantling the higher education infrastructure in the territory. Hundreds of checkpoints have crippled freedom of movement for students and faculty members. University campuses, such as Birzeit University have been closed since October 7th. In addition, even before the most recent wave of destruction, the Israeli army has frequently violated the sanctity of university campuses to arrest student leaders, most recently on September 27th at Birzeit University.

Israel’s killing of students and academic staff and its deliberate destruction of educational infrastructure constitute breaches of international humanitarian law, which requires Israel to take all feasible measures to spare civilians and civilian objects. It is self-evident that Israel has failed to comply with these requirements. As the UN Secretary-General noted in late October, “we are witnessing… clear violations of international humanitarian law … in Gaza.” Further, as South Africa argued before the ICJ, Israel’s attacks on education and students should be viewed as further evidence that Israel is deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions calculated to bring about their destruction, in contravention of the Genocide Convention. As you know, the ICJ has ruled that South Africa’s case that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza is a plausible one.

In light of all of the above, we request that our university do the following:

1. Condemn Israel’s destruction of the education system in the Gaza Strip and call for an immediate ceasefire.
2. Express support for Gaza’s universities, staff and students. Universities Canada condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and expressed support for Canada’s “extensive linkages with Ukraine,” including “institutional partnerships, student exchanges, faculty exchanges and research collaborations.” Additionally, Universities Canada featured all of the individual university statements of solidarity with Ukraine on its website. Failure to do so now, in relation to Gaza, raises serious questions about the consistency of moral standards at Canadian universities.
3. Review all partnerships, including research cooperation, student exchange and study abroad programmes, and funding relations, with Israeli educational and other institutions. End any relation that might be connected to ‘plausibly genocidal acts’ within the terms of the ICJ ruling. This includes, but is not limited to, universities that support the actions of Israeli armed forces and acts of genocidal incitement carried out by members of Israeli institutions, as well as universities that act as training grounds for soldiers.
4. Publicly condemn discriminatory and recriminatory actions taken by Israeli universities against Palestinians and Israelis who have criticized the war in Gaza. For an example of such conduct, see here.
5. Commit to setting up placements, fellowships, and scholarships for new students from Palestine, as well as hardship funds for students affected by the war on Gaza. Enhance provision of placements for existing Palestinian academics and students, including through the Scholars at Risk Programme Canada, which has enabled different university departments (for example, see here and here) to support Ukrainian researchers and students affected by the war in Ukraine.
6. Actively support Palestine’s universities through inter-institutional cooperation, including virtual exchanges, library sharing, and infrastructural support. Support Palestinian students, postdoctoral researchers and scholars fleeing the Israeli war on Gaza. In response to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, the Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) announced 150 scholarships for Ukrainian students coming to Canada as a result of the invasion; MITACS renewed its MOU with Ukraine and created 600 new internships for Ukrainian students and postdoctoral researchers fleeing the Russian invasion. The EduCan website offered specific information for Ukrainian students coming to Canada, and several universities announced new partnerships with Ukrainian universities (for example, see here and here). These scholarships, partnerships, and exchanges were backed by Canadian Government immigration and student visa initiatives. We expect Canadian Universities, Colleges, and the Government to support their Gazan and Palestinian counterparts in the same way.

We kindly ask you to respond within two weeks of receipt of this letter. We look forward to your response. •

Sincerely yours,

• Palestinian-Canadian Artists and Academics Network (PCAAN)
• Faculty for Palestine Canada
• Jewish Faculty Network (National)

Palestinian Academic Unions Commend Global Universities for Ending Ties With Complicit Israeli Universities, Urge Action From Others

Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) and Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST)

We write as the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) and Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST), which represent nearly 10,000 university faculty and staff members at 18 Palestinian universities, in response to the many principled stands by universities around the world on the situation in Gaza and the dire consequences it is having for Palestinians.

In particular, we welcome the many calls from universities around the world for an immediate ceasefire and the steps toward reviewing, suspending and severing collaboration agreements with Israeli universities and research centers that are complicit in Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

These are necessary steps to end institutional ties with Israeli academic institutions that have played a key role in Israel’s 76-year settler-colonial apartheid rule oppressing all Palestinians and, now, in what the International Court of Justice has ruled is plausibly genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

We thank the dozens of universities around the world that have taken steps to end institutional academic relations with Israeli universities over their complicity in Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian rights and international law and to divest from corporations that enable these violations.

These principled stances come as Israel has killed at least 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many of our academic colleagues and students. A report published in The Lancet indicates the death toll could eventually exceed 186,000. At least 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza have been forced from their homes, only to be bombed in shelters or burnt alive in their makeshift tents as there is no safe place to go. The level of destruction is unfathomable, creating an estimated 40 million tons of rubble. Israel’s ongoing bombing campaigns have inflicted massive damage on residential buildings, health facilities, roads, sewers and all other critical infrastructure.

As part of Israel’s genocide, it is also committing scholasticide in Gaza, where all Palestinian universities have been damaged or destroyed, along with their labs, archives, and libraries. The heads of 15 Palestinian universities have called for Israeli universities to “face international isolation” over their complicity in Israel’s human rights violations. Palestinian university presidents and administrators in Gaza are calling to oppose Israel’s scholasticide and to work directly with them to rebuild academic institutions there.

Based on ethical considerations and respect for international law, indeed all ties with Israeli academic institutions must be ended, as they have all persistently, structurally, and deeply violated international law, including international humanitarian law, as is well-documented by Palestinian, Israeli and international scholars and human rights experts. In light of the recent International Court of Justice ruling finding Israeli guilty of the crime against humanity of apartheid and its military occupation illegal, international universities have a legal obligation to avoid aiding and assisting Israel’s serious international law breaches, including via institutional cooperation with complicit Israeli universities. Please allow us to elaborate on this complicity.

Israeli universities are built partially or entirely on illegally occupied Palestinian land

Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus is partially built on land illegally expropriated from Palestinian owners in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem, in clear violation of international law, and therefore directly serves the ongoing land theft and dispossession of Palestinians.

Ariel University is entirely built in an illegal Israeli settlement on stolen Palestinian land in the occupied Palestinian West Bank in violation of international law. Settlements are considered a war crime in international law.

All Israeli universities agreed to accept Ariel University into the Association of Heads of Israeli Universities, which lists Ariel University on its website as located in Samaria, a term used by Israel to whitewash its illegal military occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Bar Ilan University initially established Ariel University as the “College of Judea and Samaria,” and all Israeli universities regularly cooperate with Ariel University.

Israeli universities maintain strong ties with the Israeli military and weapons industry

This goes well beyond research collaborations to include hosting military bases on campus and partnerships with the same arms manufacturers that are providing the weapons systems and doctrines for Israel’s genocide, domicide and scholasticide in Gaza.

The University of Haifa hosts three Israeli military colleges comprising the Israeli Military Academic Complex, which as the university states “form the backbone of the IDF’s elite training programs.” The University of Haifa holds courses at the Israeli military base of Glilot, considered to be an extension of the university.

Hebrew University hosts a military base on campus to offer academic training to Israeli soldiers. Hebrew University has additionally offered its campus buildings to Israeli forces for the oppression of the surrounding Palestinian communities in occupied East Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv University runs joint centers with the Israeli military and Israel’s arms industries. Tel Aviv University also hosts the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), which boasts of having developed the so-called Dahiya Doctrine, or doctrine of disproportionate force. Adopted by the Israeli military, the Dahiya Doctrine calls for “the destruction of the national infrastructure, and intense suffering among the [civilian] population.” This doctrine, which advocates for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is being employed by Israel, and not for the first time, against Palestinians in Gaza.

Bar Ilan University works closely with the Shin Bet, Israel’s notorious security services, which has been condemned by the UN Committee Against Torture for its use of torture and other illegal violent interrogation tactics. Bar Ilan’s Engineering faculty has run “hackathons” in collaboration with the Israeli military and with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms producer. Elbit is notoriously implicated in war crimes.

Ben Gurion University (BGU) hosts the Homeland Security Institute whose partnerships include Israel’s top weapons companies and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The Israeli military is building a technology campus next to the BGU campus aimed at furthering the ties between the military and BGU. As a brigadier general at the ribbon cutting ceremony put it, it will “reinforce the army’s operational capabilities.”

The Weizmann Institute of Science intricately collaborates with Israel’s top weapons manufacturers, including Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. It also offers an MA program for soldiers and has opened a pre-military academy that will prepare high school seniors for “meaningful military service.”

Technion has multiple partnerships with and scholarships sponsored by Israel’s top weapons manufacturers, including Elbit Systems and Rafael. Technion has developed a course on marketing the Israeli weapons industry to the international market for export. It also has numerous joint academic programs with the Israeli military and developed the remote­ control capabilities for the Caterpillar D­9 armored bulldozer used by the Israeli military to demolish Palestinian homes and whole neighborhoods during the current genocide – considered collective punishment under international law.

The Open University of Israel has run the “Academic Commandos” program with the Israeli military since 1999, boasting of having given “preferential treatment to IDF soldiers: providing 50% scholarships to active combat soldiers.”

Israeli universities have intensified their direct complicity during Israel’s Gaza genocide

Hebrew University has boasted of providing “diverse logistics equipment to several military units” in active duty during the ongoing genocide.

The Weizmann Institute has introduced more than a dozen benefits for student soldiers serving in Israel’s Gaza genocide. Hebrew University has also quickly instituted an “Enhanced Financial Package” for student soldiers committing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in addition to academic benefits.

Technion boasts of a student who enlisted professors and alumni to create an AI-driven army of bots “to massively increase the impact of pro-Israel efforts on social media,” pushing Israeli propaganda to whitewash its Gaza genocide and repress speech on Palestinian rights.

Tel Aviv University has instituted a hasbara (propaganda) course on Israel’s Gaza genocide and crowdfunded for “care” packages for soldiers perpetrating it.

Tel Aviv University’s venture capital firm, TAU Ventures, boasts of investing in Xtend, which provides systems to deploy “swarms” of armed drones that have been used in Israel’s Gaza genocide.

The Open University of Israel boasts of being “the only [Israeli] institution of higher education at which soldiers on active duty in the IDF are authorized to study while serving.”

The University of Haifa has provided equipment to soldiers carrying out the genocide in Gaza and established an “emergency” fund to provide stipends to student soldiers.

Israeli universities have long repressed Palestinians students and faculty members

Just in the past months, Adalah, the largest human rights organization defending the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, has documented 124 cases of punitive and retaliatory (“disciplinary”) proceedings against Palestinian students at 36 Israeli universities and colleges over posts on their private social media accounts.

Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan University, the University of Haifa, Ben Gurion University and Technion have also referred student cases to the Israeli police, putting the Palestinian students’ safety and even lives at risk.

Hebrew University has led a months-long public smear campaign against internationally renowned Palestinian feminist scholar Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian for having urged an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for describing Israel’s military assault against Palestinians in Gaza as genocide. Hebrew University called for Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian to resign, before shamefully suspending her from all teaching duties. Hebrew University’s actions led to Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian being arrested by Israeli forces in occupied Jerusalem, where they searched her home, confiscating her mobile phone, laptop, and other personal items.

The University of Haifa arbitrarily suspended eight Palestinian students over social media posts, with no due process.

Ben Gurion University publicly accused Jewish Israeli faculty members who signed a statement against Israel’s genocide in Gaza of having “tarnished the reputation of BGU.”

The Association of Heads of Israeli Universities has also issued several racist and dangerous statements over the past months, launching dangerous and defamatory accusations against students and faculty members advocating for an end to Israel’s Gaza genocide and an end to the complicity of their own institutions, while urging international university heads to crack down on the mobilizations.

We apologize for the length of this letter, which presents only a sampling of the ways in which all Israeli universities have persistently and systematically played an indispensable role in Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid and military occupation. That role categorically refutes any claim by these universities to be committed to peace, academic freedom or upholding international law.

We thank the many universities that have taken principled stands and urge all others to follow suit until the Palestinian people are afforded their inherent and internationally recognized rights, particularly to self-determination and liberation from all oppression. •

Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE)
Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST)

Open Letter by Gaza Academics and University Administrators to the World

We have come together as Palestinian academics and staff of Gaza universities to affirm our existence, the existence of our colleagues and our students, and the insistence on our future, in the face of all current attempts to erase us.

The Israeli occupation forces have demolished our buildings but our universities live on. We reaffirm our collective determination to remain on our land and to resume teaching, study, and research in Gaza, at our own Palestinian universities, at the earliest opportunity.

We call upon our friends and colleagues around the world to resist the ongoing campaign of scholasticide in occupied Palestine, to work alongside us in rebuilding our demolished universities, and to refuse all plans seeking to bypass, erase, or weaken the integrity of our academic institutions. The future of our young people in Gaza depends upon us, and our ability to remain on our land in order to continue to serve the coming generations of our people.

We issue this call from beneath the bombs of the occupation forces across occupied Gaza, in the refugee camps of Rafah, and from the sites of temporary new exile in Egypt and other host countries. We are disseminating it as the Israeli occupation continues to wage its genocidal campaign against our people daily, in its attempt to eliminate every aspect of our collective and individual life.

Our families, colleagues, and students are being assassinated, while we have once again been rendered homeless, reliving the experiences of our parents and grandparents during the massacres and mass expulsions by Zionist armed forces in 1947 and 1948.

Our civic infrastructure – universities, schools, hospitals, libraries, museums and cultural centres – built by generations of our people, lies in ruins from this deliberate continuous Nakba. The deliberate targeting of our educational infrastructure is a blatant attempt to render Gaza uninhabitable and erode the intellectual and cultural fabric of our society. However, we refuse to allow such acts to extinguish the flame of knowledge and resilience that burns within us.

Allies of the Israeli occupation in the United States and United Kingdom are opening yet another scholasticide front through promoting alleged reconstruction schemes that seek to eliminate the possibility of independent Palestinian educational life in Gaza. We reject all such schemes and urge our colleagues to refuse any complicity in them. We also urge all universities and colleagues worldwide to coordinate any academic aid efforts directly with our universities.

We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the national and international institutions that have stood in solidarity with us, providing support and assistance during these challenging times. However, we stress the importance of coordinating these efforts to effectively reopen Palestinian universities in Gaza.

We emphasise the urgent need to reoperate Gaza’s education institutions, not merely to support current students, but to ensure the long-term resilience and sustainability of our higher education system. Education is not just a means of imparting knowledge; it is a vital pillar of our existence and a beacon of hope for the Palestinian people.

Accordingly, it is essential to formulate a long-term strategy for rehabilitating the infrastructure and rebuilding the entire facilities of the universities. However, such endeavours require considerable time and substantial funding, posing a risk to the ability of academic institutions to sustain operations, potentially leading to the loss of staff, students, and the capacity to reoperate.

Given the current circumstances, it is imperative to swiftly transition to online teaching to mitigate the disruption caused by the destruction of physical infrastructure. This transition necessitates comprehensive support to cover operational costs, including the salaries of academic staff.

Student fees, the main source of income for universities, have collapsed since the start of the genocide. The lack of income has left staff without salaries, pushing many of them to search for external opportunities.

Beyond striking at the livelihoods of university faculty and staff, this financial strain caused by the deliberate campaign of scholasticide poses an existential threat to the future of the universities themselves.

Thus, urgent measures must be taken to address the financial crisis now faced by academic institutions, to ensure their very survival. We call upon all concerned parties to immediately coordinate their efforts in support of this critical objective.

The rebuilding of Gaza’s academic institutions is not just a matter of education; it is a testament to our resilience, determination, and unwavering commitment to securing a future for generations to come.

The fate of higher education in Gaza belongs to the universities in Gaza, their faculty, staff, and students and to the Palestinian people as a whole. We appreciate the efforts of peoples and citizens around the world to bring an end to this ongoing genocide.

We call upon our colleagues in the homeland and internationally to support our steadfast attempts to defend and preserve our universities for the sake of the future of our people, and our ability to remain on our Palestinian land in Gaza. We built these universities from tents. And from tents, with the support of our friends, we will rebuild them once again. •

Signatories:

• Dr Kamalain Shaath, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Islamic University of Gaza (IUG)
• Prof Omar Milad, President of Al Azhar University Gaza, Al Azhar University Gaza
• Dr Mohamed Reyad Zughbur, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Al Azhar University Gaza
• Dr Nasser Abu Alatta, Dean of Students Affairs, Al Aqsa University
• Dr Akram Mohammed Radwan, Dean of Admission, Registration, and Student Affairs, University College of Applied Sciences – Gaza
• Dr Atta Abu Hany, Dean of Faculty of Science, Al Azhar University Gaza
• Prof Hamdi Shhadeh Zourb, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Islamic University of Gaza (IUG)
• Dr Ahmed Abu Shaban, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Al Azhar University Gaza
• Dr Ahmed A Najim, Dean of Admission and Registration, Al Azhar University Gaza
• complete list

The UN report: “Palestinian Education Under Attack in Gaza.”