The Honourable Lena Metlege Diab
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Government of Canada
Dear Minister Diab,
We write as Jewish Canadians, community leaders, academics, students, human rights advocates, and clergy members concerned about Palestinian students in Gaza whose education and futures remain in jeopardy.
These students have already earned admission to Canadian universities and colleges, secured scholarships and demonstrated extraordinary determination to continue their studies. They have done this on their own under extraordinary circumstances, despite war, displacement and the destruction of Gaza’s educational institutions. What they cannot do alone is leave Gaza.
Palestinian students deserve the same access to education that they have earned as anyone else. We call on the Government of Canada to urgently facilitate the evacuation of Palestinian students admitted to Canadian institutions and establish a clear, timely and fair process for their visas and security screening.
We make this appeal as Jews because Jewish safety has sometimes been invoked as a reason for caution about welcoming Palestinians from Gaza.We unequivocally reject that premise. There is no evidence that the presence of Palestinian students in any way compromise Jewish safety on campus. Palestinian students are not responsible for antisemitism in Canada, and any suggestion otherwise is rooted in anti-Palestinian racism, not reality.
Their nationality is not evidence of hatred. Their experience of war and genocide is not evidence of extremism. Their grief is not a security threat. Criticism of the Government of Israel cannot automatically be treated as hostility toward Jewish people. Jewish safety and Palestinian safety are not competing values.
Legitimate security concerns should be addressed through fair, individualized screening, in the same manner that any other international student or refugee application would be treated. Canada’s immigration policies cannot be based on bigotry against an entire group of people due to their country of origin. Palestinian identity cannot itself become a security category, nor should concern about antisemitism become a reason to deny Palestinian students access to education.
Weaponizing Jewish students’ concerns about antisemitism on campus to deny access to education for an entire group of people is a fundamental betrayal of Jewish values. Our history teaches the danger of collective blame, while our traditions place profound value on education and the preservation of life. We cannot ask that these principles protect us while denying their application to others.
Gaza’s educational infrastructure has been devastated, through the material destruction of schools and universities, and the killing of academics and teachers by Israel’s bombardment. Helping students continue their studies will not rebuild its universities, but it can preserve futures that Israel’s genocide in Gaza has not yet taken away.
Education is not a threat to peace. It is one of its foundations. Palestinian doctors, engineers, teachers, researchers and other professionals will be essential to rebuilding their society.
We therefore call on Canada to expedite visas for students with confirmed admission, work with international partners to facilitate their safe evacuation, conduct routine security screening on a fair and individualized basis, and ensure that excessive administrative requirements (such as biometric testing in Gaza where biometric machines do not exist) no longer stand as insurmountable barriers for people living through genocide.
We want Palestinian students to be safe. We want Jewish students in Canada to be safe. We want antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia confronted. These commitments do not conflict with one another. Rather, they are part of the same project, of building a country where all peoples are able to live with the peace and dignity they deserve.
Canada has the ability to give these students a path out of genocide and back into classrooms. It must do so.
Signed,
Independent Jewish Voices
United Jewish People’s Order
Jewish Faculty Network
Reform Jews 4 Human Rights Canada
Jews Say No to Genocide
IfNotNow Toronto
Jews for Tikkun Olam: Jewish Social Workers, Therapists & Spiritual Leaders for Social Justice & Palestinian Liberation
- Gabor Maté MD, CM
- Michael Litwack, Independent Jewish Voices – Edmonton; Associate Professor, University of Alberta
- Sid Frankel
- Daina Z. Green
- Netta Phillet
- Ron Samson
- Yom-Tov Shamash – member of Independent Jewish Voices
- Wendy Shatner
- Michael Marek Sparrow, OCT, RECE, IJV Member
- Neil Naiman, senior scholar York university
- Mark Klein
- Anna Lippman, IJV
- Bassam (SB Halevy), IJV Guelph Chapter
- Avraham Gross-Grand
- Emily Rand, IJV Legal Committee
- Livia RJ
- Matthew Gindin
- Helen Hegedus, IJV & UJPO
- Jenna Rose, Kohenet, IJV member
- Ben Lewis
- Gail Nestel M.Ed
- Inge fowlie
- Jennie Miller
- Cheryl Gaster, LL.B., Human Rights Lawyer (Retired), C. Med, Member, Independent Jewish Voices
- Alfredo Roldán-Flores
- Kevin Keystone, IJV member
- Kevin A. Gould, Associate Professor, Concordia University
- Sid Shniad, founding member, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
- Sydney Reggio
- Debbie Samson
- Jonathan Bonder
- Asher Kirchner, IJV, Reform Jews for Human Rights
- Nadav Emerson, Board member of OPIRG McMaster
- Independent Jewish Voices – Winnipeg
- Mark Sussman, Professor, School of Performance, Concordia University
- Fabienne Presentey, Voix juives indépendantes
- Corey Balsam, IJV National Coordinator
- Esther Vise
- Leah Temper
- Miriam Breslow
- Dave Meslin, Tikvah.ca
- Dana Wachter
- Liz Bernstein
- Rachel Berman
- Chava finkler
- Cesario Lavery
- Natalie Edelson
- Mira Khazzam IJV
- Jesse Greener
- Luin Goldring, Professor Emerita
- Jillian Rogin, Associate Professor/Lawyer
- Ken Dent
- Justin Weidman
- Jamie Shorrock
- Beatrice Wayne
- Barbara Maass, citizen
- Jessika Hepburn
- Rachel Deutsch
- Donald Swartz, Professor, Carleton University (Ret)
- Ann Grant
- Eleanor Grant
- Jesse Salah Ovadia, Associate Professor, University of Windsor
- Aron Rosenberg, Educator
- Emily Andrew
- Debbie Samson IJV Guelph, Reform Jews for Human Rights, Member Beth Isiah Synaogue
- Corey Gulkin
- Cléo Clamen, Jewish community organizer and journalist
- Daniel Broomberg
- Danielle Bobker
- David Taub Bancroft
- Edward Clarke
- Jonathan McPhedran Waitzer
- Scott Weinstein (Jewish)
- Karen Lior, IJV
- Munroe Corvin
- Tyler Levitan
- Len Usiskin, Independant Jewish Voices of Canada member
- Phyllis Aronoff, Independent Jewish Voices, Échec à la Guerre
- Sally Teich
- Simone Deahl
- jake javanshir
- Rachelle Marek Sparrow IJV, OPIRG
- Alan Sheppard
- Michael Horowitz
- Sandra Sjollema, Ph.D., Concordia University
- Ray Silver (member IJV)
- Eva Sharell member of IJV Vancouver
- Emma Elbourne-Weinstock
- Rebecca Haber
- Adi Ferrara (née Rosenfeld)
- Nick Gottlieb, Simon Fraser University
- Charles Maurer
- Nir Hagigi
- Rachel Brydolf-Horwitz, IJV Vancouver
- Miriam Zittell
- Jeffrey Wynne (Independent Jewish Voices)
- Elorah, IJV Hamilton & McMaster student
- Rabbi David Mivasair, Independent Jewish Voices
- Stephen Aberle, IJV member
- adrian fine, member IJV
- Robyn Dey, member of independent Jewish Voices
- Rachel Small, Canada lead, World BEYOND War
- Eli Jany, PhD, Yiddish Studies
- Ken Klonsky
- Larry Grand
- Tamara Achtman
- Arielle Sugarman
- Eve Majzels, McGill Libraries staff member
- Corey Kurtz, IJV-Hamilton
- Dr Susan Jany
- Edward andrew, professor emeritus, U of Toronto
- Sarah Boivin, IJV Montreal
- John Liss, lawyer
- Rubin Kantorovich
- Dave Hazzan
- Judith Garber, IJV Edmonton
- Helen/Chava Mintz – Or Shalom synagogue, Hamakom synagogue, Peretz Institute
- Martin Klein, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Toronto
- Marlee Wasser, Carleton University alumnus and founding member of the Glebe Shul
- Eli Kaufman
- Lori Helfenbaum
- Andrea Levy, PhD
- Carl Rosenberg
- Dave Ages
- Terry Greenberg, Independent Jewish Vioces
- Elizabeth Block, member of Independent Jewish Voices
- Howard Green, Independent Jewish Voices
- Maryann Farkas, member, Independent Jewish Voices
- Klein Corne Klein
- Will Dubitsky, A small gesture to alleviate the genocide
- Stuart Berman
- Carole Yerochewski, citoyenne, membre du Centre des travailleurs et travailleuses immigrants (CTTI)
- Jake Morrow – PhD Candidate, Queen’s University
- Lily S. May, Member IJV
- Valerya Edelman
- Sadie Epstein-Fine
- Noah Brender, Jewish Faculty Network
- Larry Haiven, Professor Emeritus, Saint Mary’s University
- Anna Zalik, Professor, York University, JFN Steering Committee member
- Ellen Morrow
- Shira Avni, Concordia University
- Diana Ralph, Member Or Haneshamah Reconstructionist congregation
- Kevin A. Gould, Associate Professor, Concordia University
- Yves Winter, McGill University
- Charles Levkoe, Lakehead University, Jewish Faculty Network Member
- Sara Louise Kendall, Professor
- Willow-Samara Allen, Associate Professor, Royal Roads University; Jewish Faculty Network
- Glenn Rubenstein
- Yehuda Nestel
- Grandchild of a Holocaust Survivor
- Miriam Zeira
- Cade Thompson Nelson, Independent Jewish Voices
- Lauren Weinberg
- Dr. Ariel Salzmann, Queen’s University (Dept, of History)
- Grace Rurka
- Anna Leventhal
- Zsuzsi Fodor, former Adjunct Professor University of British Columbia
- Corey Martin, Master of Education student at Queen’s University
- Barbara Rahder
- Sheila Block
- Mark Libin
- Simon Kras
- Daniel Schwartz, Professor, McGill University
- Joshua Katz-Rosene
- Adeline Goetze – IJV, UJPO
- Corey Levine
- Artem Fogel
- Jerry Speigel, Professor, University of British Columbia
- Joshua Gilbert IJV Guelph
- Yedida Zalik
- Tessa Smith
- Abigail B Bakan, Professor, University of Toronto
- Ryan Katz-Rosene, Associate Professor, University of Ottawa
- Deb Cowen, Professor, UofT
- Jake Morrow, Acting Chair of IJV Kingston
- Dr. H. Avery
- Julie Lewis, Independent Jewish Voices Member
- David Weller
- Laura Lamb
- Noah Gotfrit – student
- Sophia Giaccone, OCT teacher
- Jordyne Maya
- Amanda Growe, IJV
- John Guggenheimer, Independent Jewish Voices (Canada)
- Chantale Sauvé
- Amelia Linett, IJV
- Tlell Brown Bentley, MD
- Jeremy Appel, journalist and author
- Sheila Lindfield
- Marylin Kanee
- Shira Weidenbaum, Ph.D, Or Haneshamah
- Tal Jarus, JFN
- Jerry Isenberg member IJV
- Nicholai A. Melamed, member of Independent Jewish Voices
- Erika Campbell, IJV
- Aysha Abdel-Aziz, IJV Hamilton
- Sarah Kardash, IJV – New Brunswick
- Lily Naaman, IJV, McMaster
- Rebecca Lessard
- Alisa Gayle-Deutsch
- Lesley Wood, Professor, York University
- Laïla Breger
- Jeremy Stolow
- Lisa Gamble, Media artist
- David Pollock, Independent Jewish Voices
- Lara Descartes
- Kevin Gould