11/28/2022
In September of 2022, we, Students for Palestinian Human Rights-Concordia, were made aware that the president of Concordia University, Graham Carr, made a visit to occupied Palestine, specifically to the city of Yafa, known otherwise by its colonial name "Tel-Aviv", to visit Bar-Ilan University. Carr was joined by 12 other presidents of Canadian universities and, more notably, the Israeli ambassador to Canada and representatives from Canadian Jewish Federations and Foundations. Concordia’s website boasts that "(..) the delegation was visiting Israel to learn from the country’s innovation ecosystem and to build, enrich, and deepen research partnerships between Israeli and Canadian research universities".
We fully and absolutely condemn our president’s visit to occupied Palestine and the resulting deal between Concordia University and this Zionist institution as this action directly violates Concordia’s alleged commitment to decolonization per the University’s Territorial Acknowledgement, the University’s policies on combatting climate change, and the University’s anti-racism policies. That the visit included presentations about the university’s health and medicine initiatives is also devastatingly ironic considering that the Israeli state actively denies Palestinians access to basic healthcare and uses the bodies of murdered Palestinians for medical testing purposes. The United Nations describes the medical barriers forced on Palestinians as "extreme", worsened by water and food deprivation that are forced on Palestinians at the hands of Israel. A research partnership in the face of these, among other, violations to international law thereby normalizes the occupation of stolen Palestinian land and the violence required to maintain this Zionist occupation.
It is also troubling that the trip was funded by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), an advocacy group that has acted to the detriment of academic freedom and respect for universal human rights. Recently, CIJA facilitated blatant interference in a hiring process at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, which led to the university’s censure by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). The purpose of CIJA’s intervention was to stop the hiring of an academic whose work was critical of Israel’s occupation.
As public institutions, the Canadian universities involved in this so-called partnership are fully accountable to the academic community and the public for their scholarly activities and investments. Such accountability extends to students of Palestinian descent and to students standing for justice in Palestine, for whom the violation of human rights and rights to self-determination on the land to which Palestinians belong is intolerable.
The undersigned have several crucial questions that need to be addressed:
(1) Why was there no public announcement about the delegation before the trip, preventing the community from raising any concerns?
(2) What could justify this delegation’s willingness to accept a trip funded and organized by CIJA, an organization with a demonstrated history of attacking academic freedom in Canada, when university administrators have a duty to safeguard the academic freedom of their faculty and students, not undermine it?
(3) Palestinian civil society, including Palestinian students, faculty, and university administrators have called on the world to boycott Israeli academic institutions in order to stop Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights, including their right to education. Why are the voices and concerns of Palestinian civil society and academic organizations not considered a matter of priority for these university presidents?
To show solidarity with the human rights of Palestinians and oppressed peoples everywhere, we urge Concordia students, faculty, and any member of the public to reach out to Concordia President Graham Carr and Andrew Lang, director of Concordia International to express your concerns.
In solidarity,
SPHR Concordia
Academics for Palestine
