To Interim President Buszard, President Bacon, and the Board of Governors of UBC:
It is with great sadness that we write this letter in response to the terror attacks committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023. Our hearts break for the suffering that so many Palestinians are now facing. Any future that honours the memory of the lives that have been lost must recognize both peoples’ – Palestinians’ and Israelis’ – right to freedom, dignity, and opportunity on lands of their own.
These terrible events are having a direct impact on our students, staff, and faculty at UBC. The particular trauma that Jewish and Israeli community members are experiencing is compounded when members of the academic community seek to excuse or even justify these attacks. We point out the following events to try to explain how words that may seem innocuous and progressive to some are not experienced that way by Jewish people. On campus in the last few days we have watched large groups of demonstrators chanting, “there is only one solution: intifada, revolution.” For many Jews, this recalls the “final solution,” and it triggers fear of violence against Israelis as well as Jews here in Canada. When demonstrators chant, “resistance is justified,” we understand this as a defense of Hamas’s butchering of civilians. When demonstrators chant, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” we hear this as a call to destroy the State of Israel. These are terrifying words for a people who were slaughtered by the millions not long ago. Israel’s existence represents protection against that happening again, and it has a right to exist and defend itself.
No one on our campus should feel intimidated, silenced, or afraid because of their ethnic, religious, or national affiliation. This holds true for Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims on campus, and we call out any effort that makes anyone within our UBC community feel like anything less than a full and equal member. We are thus especially saddened and hurt to see a petition signed by UBC community members who claim to be “committed to principles of social justice and equality,” which makes no reference to the equal humanity of Israelis. Moreover, portraying Israelis as colonizers, supported by “apologists” abroad, erases the historical foundation of the Jewish people in Israel and their ongoing connection to the region.
Antisemitism exists today, on both the right and the left of the political spectrum. Anti-Jewish violence is a real possibility, and not only in Israel. This does not mean that any criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But in the larger world and on some campuses, we see more than criticism of Israel: we see depictions of the current violence that convey no empathy for Jewish victims when they are butchered, raped, tortured, and taken hostage. Hamas’s actions performed the most extreme and violent forms of antisemitism. Yet we see people justifying atrocities meted out on civilians as “resistance.” As with the Holocaust, we see people denying that Jews were savagely attacked – even when it was filmed in real time. And we see the ancient and odious insinuation that Jews are collectively responsible for harms in the world. People who fight for racial and social justice should be our allies in the fight against antisemitism. We despair when it seems that they are not.
We know from long reflection and experience that it is only when all sides to a conflict understand the trauma of the other that genuine peace is possible. Anyone who denies or diminishes the deep trauma of Gazans, Palestinians, Israelis, or Jews, whether intentionally or inadvertently, shares responsibility for the ongoing cycles of violence.
It is not the role of the University to adjudicate academic disputes or to limit permissible speech. The University does however have a responsibility to ensure an environment safe from discrimination and hate for everyone in our community. Meaningful academic discourse and intellectual engagement are impossible when one’s very humanity is not recognized by others. Many Jewish and Israeli faculty, students, and staff report feeling isolated, ostracized, and unsafe on campus right now. It is incumbent on UBC to affirm that the moral distinction between civilians and combatants holds for everyone, and that organized rape, murder, and torture are never morally permissible. It is also essential that this University affirm the distinction between politically permissible discourse, and identity-based discrimination. We call on incoming President Bacon to publicly affirm these basic principles and to take active steps to ensure that all people, including Palestinians and Jews, feel safe and welcome on campus.