Motion of CREW-CSN Solidarity with Palestine

Raised by CREW-CSN Campaign Organizers 

Passed with unanimous support by the General Assembly, December 12, 2023 

1. WHEREAS Palestinians have been forced to live under settler-colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid for decades by the state of Israel; 

2. WHEREAS the Israeli occupation and Palestinian resistance has been presented as a religious conflict rather than a struggle between colonizer and colonized subjects;

3. WHEREAS any support for Palestine and Palestinians is misrepresented as an act of antisemitism and anti-zionism is dangerously conflated as an act of antisemitism; 

4. WHEREAS the Israeli state and its allies have been weaponizing the intergenerational trauma of the Jewish people as a means to justify and defend the ongoing occupation of Palestine and genocide of Palestinians; 

5. WHEREAS CREW-CSN is also committed to practicing solidarity with indigenous communities in the settler-colonial state of Canada, Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal where we work and organize;

6. WHEREAS CREW-CSN has been called upon by multiple members, and by the Concordia community to take a public stance; 

7. WHEREAS an open letter published on October 16th, 2023 by the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, signed by 18 trade unions and professional associations issued a call for international solidarity and action from workers worldwide to halt the Israeli war machine; 

8. WHEREAS the Palestinian higher education institutions have called upon international academic institutions to immediately commit to concrete actions to end the genocide, occupation and apartheid;

9. WHEREAS the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) and Fédération nationale des enseignantes et des enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ) support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and have issued statements of solidarity with Palestine; 

10. WHEREAS the CREW-CSN General Assembly is a representative and democratic body capable of taking political positions and is mandated to support campaigns for social change;

11. WHEREAS Concordia University in their communications and actions have failed to name the conflict, acknowledge and respond to the the uptick of anti-Palestinian racism, and support Palestinian members in the university community, both students and workers; 

12. WHEREAS individuals and organizations are subject to doxxing, repression, silencing, or accused of antisemitism for expressing solidarity, naming the genocide, and acknowledging anti-Palestinian racism; 

13. BE IT RESOLVED THAT (BIRT): CREW-CSNs General Assembly acknowledges the physical and enduring psychological impacts of settler and military violence on civilian populations; grieves for the deaths, injuries, and displacements of all civilians affected regardless of nationality; and extends support to all of our members affected;

14. BIRT CREW-CSN General Assembly condemns antisemitism, anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic, and white supremacist sentiments. The CREW-CSN General Assembly additionally rejects the conflation of solidarity with Palestine as antisemitism, and of anti-zionism as antisemitism. 

15. BIRT the CREW-CSN General Assembly mandates CREW-CSN to mobilize members to participate in campus and community events in support of Palestine and to join the international call for an immediate ceasefire, dismantling of the apartheid and occupation; 

16. BIRT the CREW-CSN General Assembly and all decision-making bodies within CREW-CSN to take tangible steps to boycott Israeli products and services, following the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement and its anti-racist principles; 

17. BIRT that CREW-CSN General Assembly will issue a statement of solidarity, share, and publicize this motion with its members and community.