"The abduction and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, coupled with ongoing threats to university funding and crackdowns on activists, academics, and the imprisonment and attempted deportation of those without US citizenship, has stirred collective horror and rage among members of the Jewish Faculty Network, whose membership includes more than 200 faculty members at universities across Canada.
Our anger is not new, but it has reached a boiling point, following a year and a half of pro-Israel lobby groups audaciously claiming to speak on our behalf in support of the genocide in Gaza. Worse, they claim objections to Israel’s actions since the horrific attacks of October 7th, 2023, are antisemitic. Even when human rights lawyers, international law experts and those expressing solidarity with Palestinian women, children and civilians object to the IDF’s brutal massacres of civilians, we are told that they too are modern day antisemites. Especially when Jewish intellectuals express solidarity with Palestinian suffering, we are called ‘self-hating’ or ‘antisemites’ ourselves. This absurdity must stop. Real harm is caused by diluting the definition of antisemitism and weaponizing antisemitism in response to political dissent.
As Jewish faculty at universities and colleges across Canada, we extend solidarity to our colleagues in the United States who face this wave of xenophobic “cleansing.” We view with alarm the Trump administration’s renewed efforts to purge US public and private universities of students and staff whose speech and research it finds threatening to white and Christian supremacy. Among these efforts, we note in particular the scapegoating of gender and sexuality studies, social studies, humanities research on colonialism, racism, capitalism, and imperialism, and scientific research into climate change, social determinants of health, and public health."
https://socialistproject.ca/2025/04/statements-abduction-mahmoud-khalil/
