In November 2024, Race Equity Caucus (REC, which we are members of) published a report documenting systemic anti-Palestinian racism at York University.
Rather than engage the report with integrity, York University has been dismissive. The university cited “concerns with the report’s methodology” and disagreed with its “assertions,” without specifying what those concerns or disagreements were.
Despite this, the REC sub-committee which authored the report and other members of REC agreed in good faith to meet with senior administrators. At the first meeting on Jan. 6, 2025, REC members were assured that the administration would follow up with a clarification of their methodological concerns. At a second meeting on Apr. 10, no such clarification was provided.
A senior administrator admitted in that second meeting that she had not reviewed the concerns raised by the university’s spokesperson, despite it being a prominent point during our first meeting. Yet again, the administration promised to follow up “at a later date.”
REC recommended in the meeting that if the administration had no actual disagreement with the report’s findings or methodology, the administration should issue a public apology and retract its previous statements. Silence followed.
During the meeting, REC members were also told that anti-Palestinian racism (APR) is difficult to define, and that the university cannot adopt a single definition. This was because the only definition that the administration could find was that of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA), a widely-cited framework that is also referenced in our report. Yet, instead of engaging with this definition, we were informed that the university had consulted an antisemitism committee and a group of Muslim scholars, neither of which reached a consensus on APR, according to administrators. Why such consultations were necessary in the face of an existing, community-rooted definition remains unclear.
The university also presented REC with an unrelated initiative: the possibility of York faculty volunteering to teach online or offer virtual guest lectures to students in Gaza. This would be uncompensated and voluntary, with no mention of course releases, meaning no reduction in teaching workload to offset this activity. While we welcome efforts to support Gaza’s scholars and students, these symbolic gestures do not constitute institutional accountability, especially when paired with the ongoing marginalization of voices in solidarity with Palestine on our own campus.
After the April meeting, REC requested the university respond within two weeks, specifying what flaws they saw with the report. The administration said our timeline was “too tight,” and that more internal conversations were needed. No alternative timeline was given. Instead, we were told the report would be re-read by a senior administrator using their own “researcher eyes.”
This is institutional deflection. Suggesting that a senior administrator needs to re-read a rigorously developed report using “researcher eyes” falsely equates academic research and peer-reviewed methodology with administrative authority. It also strategically injects ambiguity — an evasion tactic that delays justice and avoids accountability.
Nearly six months after the report’s release, York University has not offered any concrete critique of the report’s methodology, has not meaningfully engaged with its findings, and has yet to acknowledge the harm caused by publicly casting doubt on its legitimacy.
As the genocide in Palestine continues, academic institutions throughout the western world have resorted to attacking students and others asserting academic freedom on this issue. In line with this trend, York University and its administration is complicit in forcing people of conscience into silence so that they do not speak up and out against genocide. This forced silence perpetuates anti-Palestinian racism and contributes to the further dehumanization of Palestinians so that genocide is normalized.
Though the REC and our allies remain open to dialogue, dialogue must be grounded in good faith, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to truth, justice, and anti-racism. York University’s stated commitment to decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion (DEDI) means that it must reckon with the systemic erasure of Palestinian voices on its campuses, not perpetuate it. Without such reckoning, those who speak up for Palestinian liberation will continue to be relegated to second-class status on our campuses, exposing the hollowness of the university’s proclaimed values.
In the West, governments and institutions are eroding the fundamental democratic right of their citizens to dissent, to protect Israel a foreign state. By seeking to undermine our report York continues institutionalizing anti-Palestinian racism. The lack of good faith in our discussion has revealed that York, like many other academic institutions, is willing to deny academic freedom when it comes to any criticism of Israel.
This text was written with input from Race Equity Caucus (REC), Palestine Solidarity Collective at York University, and CUPE 3903.
This article appeared in the 2025 Summer issue.