As the genocidal carpet-bombing campaign on the Gaza strip continues for the 27th day in a row, we watch in horror as entire neighborhoods, schools, refugee camps, and even hospitals are wiped out by US and Canadian funded zionist weapons. We watch as the number of martyrs rises by the hundreds everyday. As of November 2nd, there are over 9000 martyrs, more than half of whom are women and children, and the numbers have risen since.
Gaza, a small strip of land with a population of 2.1 million, has been under a brutal siege and suffocating land, air, and sea blockade for 16 years now. Completely cut off from the rest of the world, Gazans have no access to basic human resources. Even bare necessities like water and electricity are completely controlled by “Israel” who regularly cuts them off as a form of collective punishment against the entire population of 2.1 million people, civilians, women, and children alike.
In this ongoing aggression on Gaza, the occupation has completely sealed off any entry/exit points to Gaza, going as far as bombing the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, while it continues its indiscriminate bombing of every corner of the Gaza strip. Gazans who don’t die as a direct result of the bombing will and are dying from starvation, dehydration, suffocation under the rubble, and medical complications in the days that follow.
It is our duty as students at the University of Ottawa to call out our institution’s normalization with and bankrolling of the zionist state responsible for the ethnic cleansing and mass displacement of the Palestinian people for not only the last 27 days, but for the last 75 years. The University of Ottawa is complicit in the genocide of Palestinians through it’s various investments in multiple corporations directly responsible for the upholding of the occupation’s regime.
We, as student organizers for Palestinian Liberation, have the power to change the status quo.
Our demands are clear:
We demand our university’s pension fund fully divests from corporations which facilitate Israel’s occupation and genocide in Gaza (Axon Enterprise, Airbus SE, CAE Inc, and Bookings Holdings).
We demand our university commits to reviewing and accordingly breaking off relationships with academic Israeli institutions. (Example: Exchange program at Tel Aviv University)
We demand our president revise his statement made on October 10th, this time, acknowledging the Palestinian struggle and standing with the side of the oppressed in our fight against our oppressors.
To: President and Vice-Chancellor, Jacques Frémont and CIO, Tom Valks.
Please complete the form below in demand that The University of Ottawa conforms to the aforementioned demands: