U of T must cut ties with Israeli universities

 

U of T must learn from history and cut ties with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

At this point, it’s an open secret that U of T has financial and institutional ties to Israel.  

Israel is a settler-state that has been committing genocide in Gaza for over two years, while continuing to enforce its illegal occupation and apartheid oppression of Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank. To resist this oppression, Palestinians have called on the world to support the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel. 

U of T does not have a policy that prohibits its endowment from being invested in weapons companies, whose products have been used in Gaza to bomb universities and murder thousands of students. Additionally, U of T continues to partner with Israeli universities and institutions deeply complicit in colonial violence and human rights violations. 

Beyond investments, U of T has extensive ties and partnerships to Israeli institutions and universities, including Tel Aviv University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and, worst of all, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, otherwise known as HUJI. 

I believe that cutting U of T’s institutional ties to Israeli universities is key to pressuring Israel to comply with international law. Israeli security leaders are on record stating that an academic boycott of Israeli universities is a threat of the highest order. So much so that universities like HUJI outline specific propaganda strategies against academic boycotts.  (more...)

U of T must cut ties with Israeli universities