Sign this petition to voice your frustration and disappointment regarding the email we received from our Dalhousie President, which you can see above! Find the email we sent to the university below: 

Dear President Brooks,  

We, the Dalhousie Palestinian Society, are writing to express our deep frustration and disappointment regarding your recent email concerning the recent violence between Gaza and Israel. We are deeply disappointed by your failure to mention the loss of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives over the past 10 days, as well as the thousands of innocent Palestinian lives that are tragically lost each year as a result of the enduring Israeli occupation imposed upon Palestine for the past 75 years. 

Your statement, while intended to address the recent situation, has presented a one-sided perspective showing solidarity and concern only for Israel with no acknowledgment of the ongoing and historical suffering and death of Palestinians. This is an unbalanced and biased stance that can be harmful to the institution’s reputation and, more importantly, to the numerous students, faculty, and staff within your district who are directly or indirectly affected by the occupation or for simply standing in solidarity with Palestine. We also want to take this as an opportunity to not only discourage this unfair perspective, but to also educate our faculty, administration, and entire university. Over the past 75 years, the Palestinian people have experienced immense suffering, displacement, and a 15 year-long inhumane siege and blockade on Gaza which has been described as “the largest open-air prison” by human rights organizations. This blockade has been ruthlessly imposed by Israel by land, sea, and air, and has deprived Palestinians of freedom of movement and crippled Gaza’s economy. It has also restricted access to basic human needs and rights, like food, clean water, and medicine.
 
Your email was also sent a few minutes after Israel bombed a Christian hospital in Gaza, killing over 500 innocent and injured civilians, healthcare providers, and children within seconds. It is of extreme offence and insensitivity to not respect the lives that have been lost and to fail to condemn this attack committed by the Israeli government against innocent Palestinians. Bombing a hospital is unacceptable and is a breach of international law, just like the thousands of other war crimes Israel commits daily and publicly, without facing any consequences. As an educational institution, it is our responsibility to encourage critical thinking, open dialogue, and the pursuit of knowledge. By neglecting to even mention Palestine, we are missing an opportunity to promote understanding and constructive discussion among our student body. The omission of a whole perspective is not only intellectually dishonest but also disrespectful to the countless individuals directly affected by the conflict. It is also incredibly ironic to end your email with an Indigenous land acknowledgement and recognition of African Nova Scotians, while you fail to acknowledge that Palestine is currently, and has been for 75 years, occupied by Israel. 

Your statement only further acts to erase Palestinians' right to exist and resist oppression, dehumanizing us and giving a green light for Israel's ongoing genocide campaign. Your statement only calls out the violence inflicted by a group of marginalized people that are being subject to extermination, and not the systematic and organized violence that is inflicted by Israel. Currently, terrifying and indiscriminate bombings are carried out by Israel on Gaza’s civilians, including children. They are using cluster and white phosphorous bombs – which are both prohibited under international law – and have killed over 3000 civilians, 1400 of which are children. They are also restricting the access of essential materials and aid from entering Gaza, including water, food, electricity and fuel.  

The United Nations has repeatedly deemed Israel’s aggressions in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank as “illegal under international law” and a “substantial obstacle to peace.” The death toll of the occupation by Israel in Palestine is disproportionately borne by the Palestinians. Between 2008 and 2021, at least 5,739 Palestinians and 251 Israelis were killed. According to the UN, the conflict has taken the lives of 23 Palestinians for each Israeli. Over the same time period, at least 121,438 Palestinians and 5,682 Israelis were injured. It is essential that Dalhousie keeps in mind that the Palestinian people have endured decades of dispossession, dehumanization, and annexation under the illegal Israeli occupation and apartheid system. The humanity of Palestinians should be recognized and respected as they face the devastating consequences of violence, including the recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

 
This letter is not asking you to ignore the suffering of Israelis and we do not condone any violence perpetrated on civilians. However, we ask you to recognize the hypocrisy of your statement as no such support was offered to Palestinians who have been occupied, brutalized, and terrorized for over seven decades. In your statement you also claim that “over the past 10 days, [you] have reached out to offer supports to directly affected students, faculty, and staff,” however, no one has reached out to Palestinian students who are currently watching their people and family be killed and attacked by Israel’s war crimes. Your one-sided statement is also an outright disregard and shows a lack of care for Palestinian students on campus, as some of us have families that have been directly affected and we have lost loved ones. Every neutral statement that is made without condemning or acknowledging the people that are currently being killed in Gaza is enabling the continuation of these war crimes. It also does not offer any support or comfort to Palestinian or Muslim students as there has been an increase in anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim statements and crimes. Two examples are the 6-year-old Muslim and Palestinian child who was killed in Chicago by his landlord who screamed “you Muslims must die”, and a man was arrested in Edmonton for threatening to kill a Muslim man while yelling “you guys are animals” and “f*ck you Muslim.”  

We are calling on all school faculty, administrators, and staff to ensure that they promote a safe and welcoming environment for all students. We ask that in response to the biased statement you have made, you also issue a statement affirming and recognizing the pain and suffering that Palestinians have suffered for decades – including the more than two million Palestinians in occupied Gaza who have been called “human animals” by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Palestinians are currently being indiscriminately bombed by Israel at this very moment, and they are also worthy of your outrage. We do not want future children to learn about the inhumanity of what is happening to Palestinians in history books the same way we learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust, the horrors of slavery inflicted on Black people in America and elsewhere, and the vicious dispossession and murder of other indigenous populations by settler colonial regimes. 

We would also like to make you aware of the fact that we have started a petition in support of our email and stance that we have circulated to members of the Dalhousie community. You can view the petition here to see how many individuals are also frustrated and disappointed by the statement you have made. We also believe many of them have sent you their own emails expressing their thoughts – we hope you will take their statements and ours into consideration. 

We look forward to your prompt response and statement.  

Sincerely,  
Dalhousie Palestinian Society