Since 2001, Concordia University has maintained a bilateral agreement with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. This agreement includes a student exchange program, joint research projects, and collaborative scholarships. Yet the Technion is linked to numerous aspects of the systematic oppression carried out by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people, including:1
---> Research and development via its institutional working relationship to Elbit Systems Ltd contributing to the apartheid wall, which cuts through Palestinian land and was condemned in 2004 by the International Court of Justice;
---> Research and development with Rafael Advanced Systems Ltd in military equipment such as the Merkava-4 tank used in the brutal occupation of Palestinian lands;
---> An institutionalized discrimination of Palestinian citizens of Israel who study at the Technion in terms of their access to funding, student housing, programs of study, and freedom of expression.
This petition does not target individuals, nor their religions, but rather the state and institutions that maintain apartheid. Bilateral agreements between Concordia and Technion serve as a form of normalization and signal complicity with human rights abuses committed by the Israeli state and are of serious concern to us all.
We the undersigned members of the Concordia community (students, faculty, researchers, support staff and alumni) refuse to be complicit with the production of weapons and other institutional activities contributing to the systematic injustice imposed by Israel. We therefore call on Concordia to sever its ties with the Technion until the State of Israel respects international law and ends its apartheid system.
1 More detailed information about the concrete ways that the Technion supports apartheid can be found at: http://www.tadamon.ca/post/8105
