Resisting Repression: Palestine Solidarity on Campus
May 24, 2024 | Download in PDF format

OPIRG York condemns the latest attacks by many university administrations on student organizers who are supporting Palestinian liberation and taking a stand against Israel’s relentless genocide in Gaza. As a student organization rooted in confronting injustice, we denounce all forms of settler-colonial violence that run deep in the states of both Israel and Canada.

Recognizing 76 years of ongoing ethnic cleansing and occupation, OPIRG York stands in solidarity with Palestinian civil society which calls for an abolishment of the apartheid state, which is a result of long standing settler colonization and occupation of Palestine. This global movement of student encampments calling for disclosure of and divestment from Palestinian genocide has been met with administrations calling for police violence towards students, community members and educators.

OPIRG York stands firmly in solidarity with the student encampments occupying space on stolen land across Turtle Island and around the world. We are in full support of the students who are calling on their universities not only for a disclosure of investments in weapons manufacturing but also divestment from Israeli apartheid.

We call on York University to be on the right side of history and adhere to the demands of students globally in their calls to disclose, divest, boycott. This means disclosure in order to be financially transparent regarding all investments, withdrawing all investments from the State of Israel and all companies that sustain Israeli apartheid, and a boycott of all partnerships with complicit institutions. The York University community has long pushed for disclosure and divestment regarding weapons manufacturing, as shown by ongoing work from YU Divest, a student-run activist group, among others.

Scholasticide describes the systematic assault on Palestinian education, educators and students who have been targeted by Israel’s genocide, which includes the obliteration of every university in Gaza. As a public educational institution, York University must refuse to normalize oppression, and therefore condemn Israel’s attacks on education. York University has a long history of student repression surrounding Palestinian solidarity work, so there is no better time for York University to act than now.

In our public statement published on October 19, 2023, we not only affirmed our support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, but we also called on York University to end any partnerships with the Israeli state and state-funded academic/research institutions immediately. This global movement of student encampments affirms this call to action.

OPIRG York is eager to support any students who are involved in Palestine solidarity, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism work. We would love to meet with you for any support that is needed. We strongly encourage any interested students to contact opirgyork@gmail.com for various types of support including funding, training, and for other network resources.

OPIRG York condemns genocide in Gaza and calls for ceasefire immediately
October 19, 2023 | Download in PDF format

The Ontario Public Interest Research Group at York University (OPIRG York) strongly condemns Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza. Since the start of the war on October 7, at least 4,200 people have been killed, over one million have been displaced, and large parts of the Gaza Strip have been reduced to rubble. On Tuesday evening (EST), we saw the bombing of a fully functioning and staffed Al Ahli hospital that alone has killed at least 500 people, including patients and healthcare workers providing essential and urgent care. These attacks on the people, institutions, and infrastructure of Gaza, exacerbated by Israel’s siege of the territory, constitute an egregious form of collective punishment that academics and activists now warn are genocidal in scope. We join humanitarian and human rights organizations around the world in calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to Israel’s current blockade of Gaza and the 16-year siege, and a prisoners’ exchange. We view these as necessary first steps, designed to prevent the loss of more lives and to lay the groundwork for comprehensive negotiations aimed at ending Israel’s apartheid regime and illegal occupation and recognizing Palestinians’ right to self-determination.  

As a student-led and funded organization focused on social and environmental justice, we unequivocally condemn all acts of terrorism and state-sanctioned violence that target any civilians. We mourn the loss of Israeli civilian lives claimed in Hamas’ initial assault, and those killed, wounded, and bereaved in Gaza. However, mourning is not sufficient. We call on all people of good conscience to see in these events but one more reason that the decades-long policies of dispossession, occupation, and apartheid that are at the root of the violence and atrocity, be forcefully challenged, and ultimately dismantled. 

Today, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which OPIRG York had previously endorsed. We call on York University to publicly denounce Israel’s assault on Gaza and call for an immediate ceasefire, which it has yet to do. We remind York that to appear silent on what is unfolding in Gaza contradicts its own commitment to Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023-2028; as a publicly-funded institution for higher education, it must reject all forms of racism, including anti-Palestinian racism. As students, we call for York to release funds and resources to ensure the mental health and physical safety for all students – particularly Palestinians – and to end any partnerships with the Israeli state and state-funded academic/ research institutions immediately. We commit ourselves to supporting students and the broader community by assisting with research and resources, providing access to peer-reviewed reading materials, visuals, and graphics. Our staff and board are committed to receiving with urgency requests to fund student-led Palestine solidarity initiatives such as teach-ins and other activities. We encourage our broader community to support efforts and communities on the ground by donating to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – UNWRA – and / or Medical Aid for Palestine. 

Interested in learning more about what is happening in Gaza? We’ve compiled a list of multidisciplinary resources (not exhaustive by any means) that provide both historial context and more contemporary analysis of the current situation. We hope that through lists such as these, we can learn together and feel empowered to take collective action. We will be updating this list frequently.

If you are a community member or group, or a York U almunus, and do not have access to York University library systems, we would be happy to provide you with any of the listed resources or additional ones that are not open source. Please email program.opirgyork@gmail.com if you have a specific resource in mind. 

ARTISTS / POETS

• Rafeef Ziadah
• Joe Sacco
• Lowkey
• Mahmoud Darwish
• Suheir Hammad