By: Izzy Cheung, staff writer
Content Warning: mentions of antisemitism and genocide.
From education to history, 140 members of SFU’s faculty have signed a “basis of unity” statement expressing their collective support for Palestine. The statement endorses the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and denounces antisemitism. The BDS campaign encourages individuals to boycott companies that are involved in violating Palestinian human rights (such as financially backing Israeli forces), divest from current investments in military companies supporting the state of Israel, and apply “pressure [on] local and national governments to end Israeli apartheid.” The included signatures vary from tenured to non-tenured faculty members, and range from instructors to organization coordinators.
Faculty for Palestine, also known as F4P, can be found at more than just SFU. F4P’s members are part of a large movement found across 130 universities in North America. The organization emerged in the spring of 2008 and has since amassed over 600 faculty members across Canada. This organization “was formed in solidarity with, and endorses, the Palestinian campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.”
Individual departments at SFU have also expressed their support for Palestine through statements signed by faculty members. The School of Communication issued their own statement of support, endorsed by both instructors and graduate students.
“As a community of scholars and public intellectuals, we stand steadfastly in support of Palestinian peoples’ justice and liberation,” noted the statement. “We stand against antisemitism in all of its forms and affirm that it cannot be conflated with criticism of the Israeli state.”
SFU’s Labour Studies program has also constructed a statement addressing their support for Palestine. “We stand with the Palestinian people. We stand with Israelis and Jews demanding ‘not in our name’ [ . . . ] We stand with working people, academics, scholars, and activists being harassed and criminalized for their support of Palestinian liberation.”
Their statement continues, “Our governments and institutions cannot condemn the Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine while giving Israel unqualified support to cut off access to water, electricity, food, and medicine to the people of Gaza while bombing their homes, schools and hospitals.”
On March 7, SFU F4P held a university-wide town hall on the Burnaby campus. The event featured faculty members who discussed the reasons why they signed the “basis of unity” statement. This included a poem written by English professor Stephen Collis.
“Because I saw a kite and knew it was a new ghost whose story we had to tell now more than ever,” he wrote. “Because genocide is actually not that difficult to define.”
Find out more about SFU Faculty for Palestine on their website and their Instagram page. SFU F4P’s “basis of unity” statement can be found below.
Who We Are
F4P-SFU is a network of faculty who support the cause of Palestinian liberation. We define faculty broadly to include both tenure and non-tenure track faculty and staff.
Our Values
F4P-SFU understands the struggle for Palestinian freedom to be aligned with struggles for justice, equality, and decolonization in many parts of the world. These include movements for Indigenous land rights, Black liberation, gender and sexual freedom, and struggles for a sustainable planet.
F4P-SFU affirms that human rights are universal and indivisible and should be upheld without exception.
F4P-SFU abhors and unequivocally rejects all forms of antisemitism. Our commitments as educators compel us to confront antisemitism wherever it appears.
F4P-SFU rejects the conflation of support for Palestinian liberation with antisemitism.
Our Support for Palestine
F4P-SFU endorses the non-violent call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to comply with international law and end its occupation of Palestine. We pledge to support BDS initiatives that seek to advance the fundamental rights of Palestinians to equality and self-determination.
F4P-SFU affirms the Palestinian right to education and supports building ties with Palestinian academic institutions, colleagues, students, and staff.
On Our Campus
F4P-SFU supports and amplifies the work of Students for Justice in Palestine and other groups working to advance the rights of the Palestinian people. We organize in solidarity with other social justice groups at SFU, across Canada, and around the world.
F4P-SFU rejects all forms of surveillance, targeting, and criminalization of expressions of support for Palestinian rights and liberation at SFU. We recognize that this targeting, as well as heightened security measures on campus, have disproportionately threatened the Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Indigenous, and Black community members among us who stand in solidarity with Palestinian freedom. The more secure among us will strive to protect the more vulnerable.
This statement has been endorsed by the following tenured and non-tenured faculty members.
Archaeology
Catherine D’Andrea.
Centre for Educational Excellence
Bee Brigidi.
Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies
Kylie Broderick.
Community Engagement
Rachel Nelson.
Computing Science
Ouldooz Baghban Karimi.
Contemporary Arts
Joseph Clark, Claudette Lauzon, James Long, Stefan Maier, Laura Marks, Denise Oleksijczuk, Judy Radul, Simone Rapisarda, Nadia Shihab, Suze Shore, Kathy Slade, Daisy Thompson.
Criminology
Amanda Butler, Sheri Fabian.
Education
Pooja Dharamshi, Maureen Hoskyn, Sharalyn Jordan, Jeannie Kerr, Özlem Sensoy, Suzanne Smythe.
English
Hari Alluri, Ronda Arab, Clint Burnham, Stephen Collis, Ed Graham, Joanne Leow, Carolyn Lesjak, Sophie McCall.
Environmental Science
Rajdeep Dhadwal.
French
Giuliano Gullotti.
Geography
Rosemary Collard, Sharon Luk, Geoff Mann, Eugene McCann, Magie Ramírez.
Global Humanities
Samir Gandesha, Sabrina Higgins, Spyros Sofos.
Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
Nadine Attewell, Carman Fung, Mariam Georgis, Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, A.J. Withers.
Health Sciences
John Calvert (retired), Lyana Patrick, Travis Salway, Malcolm Steinberg.
History
El Chenier, John-Henry Harter, Janice Hyeju Jeong, Mark Leier, İsmail Noyan, Roxanne Panchasi, Paul Sedra, Sarah Walshaw.
Indigenous Studies
Daniel Iwama, Nicholas Reo, Zoe Todd, Natahnee Winder.
International Studies
Sumercan Bozkurt Gungen, Darren Byler, Elizabeth Cooper, Josip Dasovic, Megan MacKenzie, Anushay Malik, Tamir Moustafa, Gerardo Otero, Irene Pang, Amyn Sajoo, Nazanin Shahrokni, Rupak Shrestha, Robert Springborg, Jason K. Stearns, Ellen Yap.
International Services for Students
Zoreen Nuraney, Wafaa Zaqout.
Labour Studies
Kendra Strauss, Cathy Walker.
Lifelong Learning
Sama Ghnaim, Leah Wiener.
Molecular Biology & Biochemistry
Lynne Quarmby.
Political Science
Jérémie Cornut, Genevieve Fuji Johnson.
Radius SFU
Humaira Hamid, Veronik Campbell, Nada El Masry, Yara Younis.
Resource and Environmental Management
Jonathan Boron, Tammara Soma.
School of Communication
Daniel Ahadi, Benjamin Anderson, Davina Bhandar, Enda Brophy, Karrmen Crey, Stephanie Dick, Milena Droumeva, Zoe Druick, Sarah Christina Ganzon, Byron Hauck, Adel Iskandar, Kirsten McAllister, Cait McKinney, Nawal Musleh-Motut, Ahmed Al-Rawi, Alberto Toscano, Siyuan Yin.
School of Public Policy
Mohsen Javdani.
SFU Library
Megan Crouch, Ashley Edwards, Eiman Elnoshokaty, Leah Hopton, Leanna Jantzi, Julia Lane, Ebony Magnus, Keshav Mukunda, Hazel Plante, Chloe Riley, Sylvia Roberts, Olive Shakur, Andréa Tarnawsky, Baharak Yousefi.
Sociology and Anthropology
Yildiz Atasoy, Dara Culhane (retired), Lindsey Freeman, Evelyn Encalada Grez, Michael Hathaway, Maureen Kihika, Dany Lacombe, Kathleen Millar, Cristina Moretti, Stacy Pigg, Pamela Stern, Travers, Amanda Watson, Kyle Willmott.
Vice President, Research & International
Mary Chen, Urooj Nizami.
World Languages and Literatures
Azadeh Yamini-Hamedani.
