A member of our university community was volunteering with Faz3a, a protective presence delegation in the occupied West Bank, Palestine, when Israeli settlers forced their way into the volunteers’ accommodations. They surrounded the group, beat them in turn, and stole their passports, phones, and personal belongings before fleeing. This violence is not an aberration, it is part of the daily, escalating terror Palestinians face, and the danger faced by all who stand with them.
Video by @faz3a_pal on the settler violence in the village of Ein al-DuyukUBC continues to invest in corporations named in the UN database for their involvement in Israel’s settlement enterprise. These settlements are illegal under international law. They are engines of dispossession, and they make attacks like this possible and predictable. When UBC invests in companies profiting from settlement expansion, it lends institutional weight to the structures that sustain this brutality.
A university that claims a commitment to human rights cannot look away. We must demand that UBC divest from corporations complicit in occupation and settler crimes.
Take action
If you only have a little time, please add your voice by sending an email using this New/Mode civic advocacy campaign.
Write to Canada’s leaders and call for accountability and protection for those targeted by settler attacks. Use this template for emailing:
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PM Mark Carney
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Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand
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Wade Grant
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Stephen Fuhr
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Subject: Violent attack by settlers on BC community member in Palestine
[Name],
I’m reaching out to express my grave concern about the safety of a group of international volunteers, including a Canadian citizen, a member of our community in B.C.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, our community member and three other volunteers staying in Ein al-Duyuk (near Jericho, West Bank) were violently attacked by a group of ten armed, masked Israeli settlers who stormed their accommodation. The volunteers, participants of the Faz3a Campaign, had their passports, phones, credit cards, and personal belongings stolen during the raid.
The Faz3a Campaign is a Palestinian-led initiative that organizes unarmed civilian protective presence to communities in the West Bank that are experiencing increasing and escalating violence at the hands of Israeli settlers seeking to illegally occupy Palestinian land. Members of these communities are being attacked, injured, displaced, and killed daily.
In her own words, our community member says:
“We got beaten up pretty bad…they kicked me in the head multiple times and in the ribs multiple times, and in my hip, but nothing’s broken…Our only concern is for the community of [Ein al-]Duyuk. They’re so scared and they need people there so badly.”
The ongoing violence against Palestinian civilians and international volunteers, including a Canadian citizen, is an abhorrent violation of human rights and international law. This recent escalation reflects an emboldened settler movement encouraged by international impunity.
We, residents and citizens of [Vancouver/Kelowna/British Columbia/Canada] call on you to exert diplomatic pressure on the Israeli authorities and hold both the direct perpetrators and the Israeli authorities – who systematically enable the escalation of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and colonial violence – fully accountable. Third States and the international community are legally obligated to intervene and ensure the safety of targeted Palestinian communities and the international civilians of conscience who stand with them.
We demand you call for an immediate, two-way arms embargo on Israel, as well as economic sanctions, and a permanent, legitimate ceasefire to end their genocidal violence on Palestinian people and lands.
I will await your response to this urgent matter.
[Name]
[Postal code]