“Our ability to talk, teach, and learn about Palestine and Palestinian liberation, as this report shows, has long been under punitive threat at York University. Under the current administration, this threat has deepened exponentially,” conclude the authors of the new report, titled Surveilled & Silenced: A Report on Palestine Solidarity at York University.
The report, published in October, draws from surveys carried out separately by the York University Faculty Association’s Race Equity Caucus and by the student group Palestine Solidarity Collective.
The surveys were initiated after hearing mounting anecdotal evidence from Palestinian students and their allies about increased policing of their actions, harassment from other students and faculty in class, at rallies or even in their dorms, microaggressions and overt racial slurs, online doxxing, and more.
‘Systematically surveilled, silenced and repressed’
The two surveys received 90 responses from a mix of students (around 60 per cent) and faculty (around 30 per cent). While more responses would have been ideal, says one of the co-authors, the study was hindered due to the backlash it received.
They say about 70 per cent of complaints received, which were not survey responses, were about collecting the data at all. Another 20 per cent of the complainants believed collecting data on anti-Palestinian racism should also include collecting data on antisemitism. Another 10 per cent felt anti-Palestinian racism was deserved.
“These criticisms, though, did not set us back in collecting the data or compiling the report, they only hindered dissemination of the report and increased the amount of work that we had to do replying to criticism,” says one of the report’s authors, assistant professor of politics Tamanisha J. John.
The findings are divided into four main themes:
- Silence and inaction from the administration
- Justifying repression by using “community safety” rhetoric
- Hyper-surveillance and increased police harassment
- Growing distrust for the administration
Another co-author says the responses “revealed broader institutional logics and patterns through which solidarity work with Palestine and on Palestinian liberation has been systematically surveilled, silenced and ultimately repressed across multiple sites on campus.” This co-author has asked to remain anonymous to avoid reprisals.
“We can place the various repressive tools and practices on a spectrum, from active control of the narratives deployed by pro-Palestinian students and instructors, to the … unprecedented use of force and violence to repress these voices through hyper surveillance and physical aggression.”
A history of repression
One of the most recent examples the report cites is the student encampment in June, set up to call for an end to Israel’s war on Gaza and for the university to cut ties with Israel. The encampment was violently destroyed by police a day after being erected, despite the administration promising to engage in “open dialogue” when it went up.
It also mentions Toronto police interrupting a relatively small lecture by Dr. Muhannad Ayyash in February. Police who came onto campus cited a potential “major event” and claimed they had been called by the university. The university claimed the police were called by a “special investigation unit” without offering any further explanation or apology, the report states.
The administration has gone as far as demanding the resignation of democratically-elected executives from three student unions, suspending at least five from the University Graduate Students Association (YUGSA). “At the time of writing,” the report states, “the university continues to withhold student levies under the threat of completely withdrawing recognition and funding to these student unions.”
“When we bring all these things together, what we have is a clear picture of an institution that has worked to actively repress through a number of tools, all the while using the rhetoric of community safety and of academic freedom, and of protecting against threats of antisemitism,” said one of the authors.
The University did not respond to questions about the reports findings, whether it would commit to demands regarding financial disclosure and divestment regarding Israel’s military and occupation, and if there is any mechanism by which the university’s financial holdings can be disclosed.
In an emailed statement, spokesperson Yanni Dagonas said the university “has concerns with the report’s methodology and disagrees with the report’s assertions.” He said York was ready to meet with the “report’s authors, at their request to engage directly with them and find ways to work together to focus on combating all forms of racism and hatred, including anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism.” Only after that meeting would the university address The Grind’s questions.
The report cites examples dating as far back as 2004, when a student was suspended without a hearing for an allegedly “unauthorized” pro-Palestinian action. The university also suspended the official club status of Students Against Israeli Apartheid twice, and has repeatedly made statements conflating Palestinian solidarity activism with antisemitic hatred, according to the report.
However, says one of the authors, that has “definitely intensified” since last October.
While it’s hard to point to any one factor, they say students’ increased knowledge of the historical context and their level of organization may point to why the administration is also ramping up its actions.
They also point to the university’s “material, financial and political ties” to Israel before and after October 2023. The report mentions “a number of Decanal and Provostial trips to Israeli universities … [and] a trip to Israel led by the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).”
However, the roots of the aggression against pro-Palestinian speech and action at the university, write the report authors, “lie in the university’s ideological and material investments in/with the Israeli state.”
“To date, the university has shown no honest intention to make these relations [with Israel] public and/or to have collegial discussions about them,” the report states.
“Divesting from these relations, as demanded by the student leadership of this university, will be key to starting the much-needed work of fostering a climate where politically vigorous, ethically responsible, and compassionate conversations about Palestine, and justice for Palestinians, become possible, positively impacting teaching, research, and policies at York University.”
The report’s authors conclude by joining the students “in demanding that the York University administration disclose its financial holdings; divest immediately and permanently from all endowments, investments and other financial holdings from Israeli military and security goods; and, boycott all current and future partnerships with Israeli academic institutions that are complicit in the violent occupation of Palestine.”
Beyond surface-level changes like the equity office taking steps to add anti-Palestinian racism to their guidelines, the authors say there are no structural changes on the horizon.
Difficult conversations
While many people might be burned out, wanting to look away and go back to normal, the York report’s authors stress that to move forward, these hard conversations are necessary to confront.
“And if we want to confront it, we cannot repress some voices. We have to hear those who have been at rallies, who have been receiving racist slurs, those who have been surveilled and been punished severely,” they said.
“There is no long term sustainable institutional peace if we cannot have these conversations. … If we want to stay in our institutions, we need to rebuild these institutions. We need to foreground another culture of care and of justice.”