Be it resolved that we, the members of MAUT, endorse the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Be it further resolved that we call upon McGill’s administration to take all necessary steps to implement the boycott of Israeli academic institutions, while ensuring that the boycott applies to institutional partnerships and agreements, not individual Israeli academics. This resolution will sunset in two years unless it is renewed or extended by the membership of MAUT at another General Meeting.
Resolution to Endorse the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel Whereas, the International Association of Genocide Scholars has declared that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)”;1 Whereas, the International Court of Justice has found that Israel’s actions plausibly constitute violations under the Genocide Convention, and leading international organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have described Israel as maintaining a system of apartheid;2 Whereas, in May 2025 the United Nations documented that Israel’s campaign of scholasticide has destroyed every university in Gaza and killed at least 5,479 students (as of April 2024) and over 190 university academic staff (as of May 2025);3 Whereas, the complicity of Israeli academic institutions in denying Palestinian human rights has been comprehensively documented;4 Whereas, McGill has current exchange agreements with four Israeli universities,5 as well as coordinating a three-week study trip with Hebrew University Business School (under the banner of the McGill-Israel Entrepreneurship Program);6 Whereas, every one of these partner universities is a pillar of Israel’s system of apartheid, colonization, and military occupation directed against the Palestinian people in contravention to international law;7 Whereas, in 2005, 170 Palestinian civil society organizations called for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel;8
Whereas, that call has been interpreted by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, not individual Israeli academics;9 Whereas over the past two years, at least 18 University Faculty Associations in Canada passed motions calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel given its ongoing military assault on Gaza;10 Whereas CAUT has reaffirmed that faculty associations have the right to hold political and even partisan positions and to pass motions calling for boycott and/or divestment and/or sanctions of the State of Israel;11 Whereas in 1985, McGill became the first Canadian university to announce it would divest from companies with ties to Apartheid South Africa,12 and in 2006 McGill divested from companies in Myanmar;13 Whereas in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, MAUT examined its financial portfolio in view of divestment from Russian companies;14 Whereas, MAUT has a history of calling upon foreign governments to end their campaigns against universities and to protect academic freedom;15 Whereas, as a faculty association, MAUT has a duty to stand in solidarity with scholars whose academic freedom and right to education are under attack; therefore,
The McGill Association of University Teachers just endorsed the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, with over 90% of voters supporting the motion.
