Open Letter to Queen’s University Administration

To the Queen’s University Board of Trustees, Principal Patrick Deane, and the Office of Investments,

We write to you, again, and with renewed urgency, in light of the recent conclusion by the United Nations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.  In its latest findings, the Commission of Inquiry states that “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births”. 

The UN’s rigorously researched report is the latest amongst several others, including those from the ICJ, Amnesty International, International Association of Genocide Scholars, B’Tselem, and Physicians for Human Rights. We also remind you that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for their role in war crimes and crimes against humanity against the population in Gaza.

While the genocide is recent, starting in 2023, Israel’s human rights violations are not. For decades, human rights organizations, legal scholars, and civil society actors have documented systematic human rights violations committed by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. These include unlawful killings, forced displacement, systemic apartheid, and military occupation. Now, with the global community finally naming what has long been visible to those willing to see — genocide — we ask: Will Queen’s University continue to invest in death? Since March 7th, 2024, when student, faculty, and staff groups first started demanding that Queen’s divest from genocide, war, and apartheid, the call was clear: 

1. Cut ties from all corporations and institutions complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid, or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians; and  

2. Divest from companies and corporations profiting from Israeli apartheid.

Since we last wrote to you, Israel's military campaigns have significantly escalated, extending beyond Gaza to include strikes against Iran, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Tunisia, as well as Qatar, a key mediator. This expansive pattern of aggression, which further destabilizes the entire region and undermines diplomatic pathways, renders Queen's continued financial complicity increasingly indefensible. Such investments directly implicate the university in actions that violate international law and human rights on a massive scale. We are compelled to ask: what legacy does Queen's intend to build by funding such destruction, and what message does this send to future generations about the institution's commitment to its stated values of peace and justice?

Queen’s University has expressed its commitment to “ethical investing,” as outlined in the Responsible Investing Policy. Yet, despite sustained calls from students, faculty, alumni, and global human rights advocates, the university continues to profit from corporations complicit in Israel’s ongoing military aggression, occupation, and genocide. This inaction is no longer a matter of bureaucratic delay — it is complicity.

Universities are meant to be institutions of moral and intellectual integrity, not passive beneficiaries of violence and oppression. Queen’s University cannot claim to uphold human rights while investing in companies that enable the destruction of civilian life, by killing thousands of Palestinian civilians, demolishing infrastructures– including ALL schools, hospitals, and universities, and systematically erasing a people.

In light of the United Nations commissions’ formal recognition of the genocide, we ask that  Queen’s University:

1. Immediately commit to divesting from all companies, funds, and institutions that are complicit in the State of Israel’s violations of international law and crimes against humanity 

2. Cut ties to all corporations and institutions complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid, or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.

3. Create five (5) comprehensive scholarships, valued at $40,000 per student per year, for Palestinian students who have been impacted by the genocide or the apartheid regime. These scholarships will provide students with the financial, academic, and career support they require to complete their degrees. We ask that the University maintain these scholarships for the next 10 years. 

If not now, then when? History will remember the choices we now make. 

We call on the University and the Board of Trustees to:

1. Conduct and publish a full, transparent review of its investment portfolio;

2. Publicly disclose all direct and indirect holdings in companies complicit in the Israeli military-industrial complex and the illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territories; and

3. Commit to a binding timeline for the complete divestment from these entities.

Failing to take these concrete steps contradicts the fundamental values Queen's publicly upholds, specifically its commitment to "build a diverse, equitable, inclusive and anti-racist community" and to "decolonize the academy." As an institution of higher learning, Queen's has a further responsibility to champion international law. We urge you to demonstrate leadership by aligning the university's investments with its principles and, in doing so, reminding the Canadian state of its own legal obligations under the Rome Statute.

The Queen’s community is watching. The world is watching. History will remember where this institution stood.

Sincerely,
Queen’s Faculty and Staff for Palestine