OCSU Statement of Settler Colonialism in Palestine

30 days cannot begin to encapsulate the profound agony endured during 75+ years of occupation. This month marks a devastating milestone, with over 10,000 lives lost in Gaza, and thousands more missing, unmarked, and unidentifiable.

The OCSU has always been a champion for student voices, but our silence has been a deafening contradiction of our principles. We would like to make it clear that genocide should never be a subject of neutrality.

We grieve for the loss of homes, dreams, aspirations, and lives affecting men, women, and children. We mourn for the loss of safety. We ache for those left orphaned and widowed, for the martyrs and survivors. We mourn the dispossession of Indigenous Palestinian land and civilians. 

We stand in solidarity with our Indigenous and Racialized peers who bear intergenerational traumas stemming from settler colonialism, land seizures, apartheid, and genocides.

We have the responsibility to educate ourselves on the history and context of this dire reality. We extend our compassion to the Palestinian, Arab, and Jewish communities who have shouldered the unfair burden of tirelessly educating us whilst continuously fighting for their own humanity. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people who risk their lives daily to document and communicate to the western world. They speak to us in a language foreign to them, pleading with us to witness their struggle and to see their humanity. We stand by the Jewish community, whose grief and fear have been exploited by corrupt, greedy, and oppressive systems to enact a cycle of continuous violence.

To our peers, community, and members, we implore you to:

1. Call upon the House of Commons in Parliament to require the Prime Minister to take the necessary measures to address the Israel-Palestine conflict

2. Call for an Immediate Humanitarian Corridor in Gaza

3. Take the time to learn with us and review these resources

• All the Walls Will Fall: 2023 Palestine Liberation Resource List Curated by the Popular University of the Palestinian Youth Movement

• Unveiling the Chilly Climate: The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada, written by Sheryl Nestel and Rowan Gaudet and published by Independent Jewish Voices

• Okanagan College Library’s exhaustive resource list 

No amount of words or expressions of compassion and solidarity can ever fully capture the overwhelming grief, tragedy, suffering, and trauma brought about by this genocide. Above all, let us hold each other with more compassion and create space for learning, understanding, and collective grief. 

We maintain hope that through united efforts, we can persistently call on our representatives, sign petitions, rally, amplify Palestinian voices, and educate ourselves to demand a ceasefire. 

Collectively and individually, the OCSU acknowledges our ongoing need for learning and unlearning. We must stay united to champion the liberation of Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Hawaii, the Uyghurs, and Indigenous People of Turtle Island, just to name a few. 

Liberation for one means liberation for all.

From the river to the sea,

OCSU