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May 26, 2024

Dear Memorial University Leadership,

As Memorial University Faculty, we stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine living under a long standing system of apartheid, illegal occupation and ongoing genocide in Gaza. We support our students demonstrating tremendous courage and an unwavering pursuit of justice in their demands that Memorial University immediately cease financial investments with Israel and end its complicity in the ongoing Israeli occupation, apartheid and colonialism inflicted upon the Palestinian people. And we are dismayed by the recent statement by president Neil Bose, published in the Gazette, which denied these demands.

As an institution which claims to champion equity, diversity and inclusion, how can Memorial University financially support a state which upholds an apartheid system, practising systematic discrimination and segregation of Palestinians, as determined by Amnesty International, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and other humanitarian organisations? 

As an institution committed to “inclusivity and diversity,” how can Memorial University financially support a state on trial for genocide which in April 2024, the UN Human Rights council and the Canadian parliament called for an end of arms sales to?

As an institution of higher education committed to “freedom and discovery,” and a “responsibility to learners,” how can Memorial University financially support a state committing scholasticide, destroying every university, every medical school in Gaza while murdering countless teachers, academics, renowned scientists, and over 4,000 students?

As an institution which claims to acknowledge the suffering and displacement of the Indigenous people of Newfoundland and Labrador and "disrupt settler colonialism," how can Memorial University financially support a settler colonial state which continues to violently expand illegal settlements across Palestine?

Over the past 7 months, we have witnessed Israel’s decimation of every institution in Gaza, the complete disregard for innocent Palestinian lives and the internal displacement of 1.7 million Palestinians, which is 75% of the population. As of May 8, 2024, over 34,844 Palestinians have been murdered in Gaza, including at least 7,500 children and nearly 5,000 women and 2,000 elderly reported. According to  Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has killed more children in Gaza in five months than in all global conflicts in the last four years combined. Additionally, Israel’s throttling of adequate food, water and medical supplies has engineered a full-blown famine in Gaza. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been over 440 attacks on healthcare facilities since October 7, 2023 with over 480 healthcare workers killed.

As faculty, we find it reprehensible that Memorial University would support any economic liaison with Israel, given its blatant attack on Palestinian education and disregard for Palestinian lives. The echoes of history are impossible to ignore in this current moment. Courageous and principled students decades ago protested against the Vietnam war and South African apartheid. In 1981, the Board of Regents at Memorial University rejected MUNFA’s proposal to divest the Memorial pension fund from banks with Investments in South Africa. Memorial students established the Memorial Anti-Apartheid Working Group (MAAWG) in 1988. In February 1989, they brought a list of companies complicit in South African apartheid to the Board of Regents. Memorial failed to take a stand against apartheid and was on the wrong side of history. Now is Memorial University’s opportunity to show authentic moral leadership and right the record. In this moment, we as faculty stand in solidarity with our students who show tremendous courage and an unwavering commitment to justice.

In light of all of the above, we demand that Memorial University:

1. Undergo an external auditing process to assess the extent of the University’s financial involvement in corporations that profit from or participate in human rights violations, particularly the state of Israel’s apartheid regime;

2. Immediately divest and end partnerships with companies involved in Israeli human rights violations and settler colonial violence;

3. Place the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) definition of Anti-Palestinian racism within its institutional framework to support Palestinian students and their allies in their identities and advocacy.

Sincerely,