Quebec university profs & workers demand an academic boycott of Israel:
We are a group of teachers and employees at Quebec colleges and universities who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and with the people of Gaza who have suffered through the Israeli siege as targets of Israel’s brutal military attack. It will take more than ceasefires to bring a just and lasting peace in Palestine and Israel.
In the wake of the Israeli bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza, the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees has urged academics around the world to support a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
We support this call to boycott Israeli academic institutions. We place it in a wider campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions.
The fight against apartheid in South Africa was supported through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. We support a similar strategy against the Israeli state.
We will undertake actions in our own institutions to pressure them to participate in a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign that aims for a just and lasting settlement for the Palestinian people.
We strongly condemn the Canadian government’s position on the ongoing conflict in Gaza and its bilateral trade agreements that help sustain Israeli military actions. The Harper government consistently supports the government of Israel, which uses weapons causing mass destruction on a mainly civilian population, including attacks on children and schools. It has violated interna-tional prohibitions against collective punishment by blockading the Gaza strip.
We call on the Harper government to re-evaluate its policies and to unequivocally condemn the Israeli siege and assault on Gaza, which constitute serious violations of international and humanitarian law..
We also urge that all economic relations between Israel and the governments of Canada and Quebec - including trade agreements - be suspended until there is not only a just and lasting peace for the Palestinian people, but that Israel, in compliance with international law, recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.
Abridged text of the declaration "
Un cessez-le-feu ne suffira pas pour concretiser la paix entre Palestine et Israel", signed by 80 professors and employees of Québec universities and published in Le Devoir on Jan. 24, 2009.
by PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
WWW.PAJUMONTREAL.ORG
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