[Fdu] Fwd: F4P ACTION: support UTSC students call to endorse BDS

[Peter Fitting]

Please see below for an urgent solidarity request from Toronto Students 
for Justice in Palestine (TSJP).

TSJP is a Palestine solidarity group that has formed at the University 
of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC). TSJP will be bringing a motion to 
endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) before the 
Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) on April 5th. In addition to a 
group letter, TSJP is calling on individual faculty to support their motion.
Please share widely with colleagues.

*TO SEND AN INDIVIDUAL LETTER: see CALL below and pasted template *
*Deadline to send letters of support is*: *April 4, 2013*

*TO ATTEND THE SCSU MEETING: **April 5, Student Centre, room SL-232, 6 
to 8pm*
*
*
In addition, TSJP is holding a film screening and an information session:

*5 BROKEN CAMERAS Film Screening & Information Session 
<https://www.facebook.com/events/117360825120167/?ref=22>*
March 26 <https://www.facebook.com/events/calendar/2013/March/26> at 5:00pm
University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) 
<https://www.facebook.com/utsc1> inToronto, Ontario 
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Toronto-Ontario/110941395597405>
IC130
https://www.facebook.com/events/117360825120167/


Please RSVP to this email if you plan on attending the film or the SCSU 
meeting.  TSJP will be glad to hear they are receiving faculty support.

*********************************************

*CALL FROM TORONTO STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE (TSJP)
*

We are currently trying to pass the BDS motion here at UTSC and are 
facing some opposition. On March 26 we will be showing the documentary 5 
Broken Cameras as well as having an information session to discuss the 
occupation of Palestine, the work we do on campus, and what BDS really 
means.

  We have had one lecturer write to the Scarborough Campus Students' 
Union against passing the BDS motion.

Here are something F4P could do that would greatly assist us:

If you and/or F4P would like to co-sponsor the documentary and 
information session, please let us know. You may speak at the event 
about the role F4P plays, etc.

  You and/or F4P could send an email in support of the BDS motion here 
at UTSC to the following emails: 


president at scsu.ca <mailto:president at scsu.ca>


academics at scsu.ca <mailto:academics at scsu.ca>


studentsandequity at scsu.ca <mailto:studentsandequity at scsu.ca>


external at scsu.ca <mailto:external at scsu.ca>


operations at scsu.ca <mailto:operations at scsu.ca>


humanresources at scsu.ca <mailto:humanresources at scsu.ca>


campuslife at scsu.ca <mailto:campuslife at scsu.ca>


info at scsu.ca <mailto:info at scsu.ca>


Rannie at scsu.ca <mailto:Rannie at scsu.ca>


taha at scsu.ca <mailto:taha at scsu.ca>

cc: tjsp at hotmail.ca <mailto:tjsp at hotmail.ca>

And lastly, we will be passing the motion on April 5, we encourage 
everyone to attend this historic meeting, and Faculty for Palestine is 
more than encouraged to attend.

Toronto Students for Justice in Palestine

tsjp at hotmail.ca <mailto:tsjp at hotmail.ca>

**********************************************************

*Letter of support for BDS - template*

March 24, 2013

Dear members of the Scarborough Campus Students Union (SCSU):

Faculty 4 Palestine is inspired by the Toronto Students for Justice in 
Palestine’s (TSJP) decision to bring forth a motion calling on the SCSU 
to endorse the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, 
Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel (BDS). We are honoured to 
support this motion and to be working in solidarity and collaboration 
with student unions, associations and organizations such as TSJP and 
SCSU in the campus BDS movement and in the global movement as a whole.

The SCSU will be joining student associations across Canada and around 
the world by endorsing BDS in the struggle for justice in Palestine. As 
the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel 
(PACBI) noted in their opening newsletter of the year, 2012 was a banner 
year for BDS endorsements globally and on campuses across Canada and 
Quebec - /"2012 has been/ /an exciting year for the growth of the 
cultural and academic boycott of Israel, a pillar of the global BDS 
movement." /http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2094

PACBI's list of highlights acknowledges the wave of campus support on 
Canadian campuses that began in February of 2012 and now includes the 
following 8 student unions:

* University of Regina Students Union (February 2012)

* Graduate Students Association at Carleton University (March 2012)

* York University Graduate Students Association (November 2012)

* University of Toronto Graduate Students Association (December 2012)

* Concordia Graduate Students Association (January 2013)

* University of Toronto Mississauga Students Union (February 2013)

* Trent University Central Students Association (February 2013)

* York University Federation of Students (March 2013)

This recent surge in student union BDS endorsements also joins three 
campus divestment campaigns launched in 2010 (Carleton University) and 
2011 (York University and University of Toronto). These cross-campus 
divestment campaigns were initiated after Israel’s 2008-2009 war crimes 
and massacre of over 1400 Palestinians in Gaza, and also in response to 
the renewed call in 2009 for campus divestment and academic boycott by 
the Gaza students in the Palestinian Students Campaign for the Academic 
Boycott of Israeli (PSCABI). Students around the world have also played 
a key role in building the academic boycott.  In solidarity with faculty 
activists, student organizers advanced the historic decision made by the 
Senate of the University of Johannesburg (UJS) to sever their formal 
relationship with the Ben-Gurion University in Israel (September, 2010) 
in support of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural 
Boycott of Israel (PACBI). Archbishop Desmond Tutu applauded the UJS 
decision pointing out that Israeli universities are complicit in 
maintaining an apartheid state and this decision recognizes the right of 
Palestinians to non-violent resistance:

/Together with the peace-loving peoples of this Earth, I condemn any 
form of violence - but surely we must recognize that people caged in, 
starved and stripped of their essential material and political rights 
must resist their Pharaoh? Surely resistance also makes us human? 
Palestinians have chosen, like we did, the nonviolent tools of boycott, 
divestment and sanctions./

http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1526&key=university%20of%20johannesburg

In the last few days, as the York Federation of Students joined their 
ranks, Palestinian poet and activist Remi Kanazi made the links between 
the BDS motions and the need to grow the campus divestment campaigns:

/Huge shout out and congrats to Students Against Israeli Apartheid at 
York University! The York Federation of Students passed the BDS motion 
today. That is the 8th student victory across Canada over the last year, 
which is nothing short of remarkable. Next stop: All campuses 
implementing divestment!/

Faculty 4 Palestine honours the years of struggle that prepared the 
ground for these BDS victories by activists in groups like Students 
Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), Students for Justice in Palestine 
(SJP), Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) and Israeli 
Apartheid Week (IAW). We strongly encourage the SCSU to pass the motion 
proposed by TSJP. By endorsing BDS, UTSC students will ensure that all 
three campuses at University of Toronto are in solidarity for the next 
steps in mobilizing the existing campus divestment campaign.  Faculty 4 
Palestine has worked in solidarity with SAIA in launching the U of T 
campaign, and will continue to support the campaign for divestment on 
all campuses.  We will also continue to work in solidarity with all 
student organizations who join the growing wave of support for BDS 
action in the struggle to end Israeli apartheid and for justice in 
Palestine.

Sincerely,

Faculty 4 Palestine

/Faculty for Palestine (F4P) formed in spring 2008, and is a committee 
of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Toronto. The 
network includes over 550 faculty of all ranks (tenured, contract, 
emeritus, independent researchers, retired, visiting scholars) from over 
40 universities and 15 colleges across Canada.  F4P endorses and works 
in support of BDS, the Right to Education Campaign (Birzeit University), 
and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of 
Israeli (PACBI). /

/To contact F4P, email us at: faculty at caiaweb.org 
<mailto:faculty at caiaweb.org>/



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