By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer
On October 23, chants echoed across convocation mall as SFU community members gathered for a campus strike in solidarity with Palestine. Organized by the climate justice organization SFU350 and the anti-Zionist group Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) SFU, the event featured several speakers and was inspired by similar protests at Belgian universities. The Peak attended the strike for more information.
“You may be wondering how a group dedicated to the climate is co-hosting this protest,” said an SFU350 member addressing the crowd. “Well, that is because climate justice is Palestinian liberation.”
In May, The Guardian reported that the carbon footprint from Israel’s genocide “will be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of a hundred individual countries, exacerbating the global climate emergency on top of the huge civilian death toll.” Despite the most recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect on October 10, reports have revealed that airstrikes and violence continue in Gaza.
Since as early as the TSSU’s referendum in 2017, community members have been demanding divestment from “all war contractors complicit in the occupation of Palestine,” which includes Booz Allen Hamilton, BAE Systems, and CAE Incorporated. In a joint Instagram post, SFU350 and IJV SFU also stated that the school must “include arms producers and military services as going against SFU’s Responsible Investment Policy.”
This call for divestment was one of four recent demands presented by SFU350 and IJV SFU. The second demand is ending “all partnerships with Israeli institutions and universities.” Currently, SFU is listed as a partner of Tel Aviv University, Israel’s largest university. SFU is also listed as having collaborated with the Israel Institute of Technology, also known as Technion, within the last five years. In a statement to The Peak, SFU said, “In response to these requests, we are working to review and revise our Responsible Investment Policy.”
“The third demand,” an SFU350 member said at the strike, “is for SFU to sign the Apartheid Free Community BC pledge, just as the City of Burnaby has done two months ago.” The final demand called upon SFU to “protect the students from anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism on this campus.”
SFU stated that they received the list of demands from SFU350 on October 28, and that they would be “discussed by the executive team and appropriate offices.” SFU said, “To be clear, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, antisemitism, racism, and hate of any kind have no place at SFU. The university and its leadership are deeply committed to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community where all feel welcome, accepted and valued.” They pointed to Campus Public Safety and the Bullying and Harassment Central Hub as resources for community members.
After hearing from SFU350, Gerardo Otero, professor emeritus at the School for International Studies, spoke to those in attendance. “Let me be unequivocally clear,” he stated, “this solidarity is not antisemitism.
“Our call for peace and justice is rooted in universal principles of human rights, and it is a call that includes and honours many Jewish voices who stand with us,” he added.
“This moral clarity must be translated into action right here at home.” — Gerardo Otero, professor emeritus, School for International Studies
Otero spoke about a motion passed by SFU’s Faculty Association in June of last year, calling on the university to take similar action regarding divestment and support. One section specifically urges SFU to “work with partners to actively support Palestinian universities and the Palestinian educational sector more broadly through inter-institutional cooperation, including virtual instruction, exchanges, library sharing, and infrastructural support.” IJV SFU member Dina noted in her own speech, however, that “there are no universities left in Gaza.”
Every speaker at the strike concluded by expressing that SFU must take action to relinquish its role in enabling genocide.
“We are here to insist that our campus must remain a space for courageous conversation, for solidarity with the oppressed, and for the unwavering pursuit of justice, even when, especially when it is uncomfortable for the powerful,” Otero said.
