F4P, UofT sent the letter below to key members of the UofT administration in response to an effort to normalize and strengthen institutional partnerships with Israeli institutions, while starving partnerships with our global south colleagues at risk. We reproduce VPFAL’s original email at the bottom of this post.
To whom to may concern:
We write to express our profound dismay in response to the email requesting information about University of Toronto community members’ travel to Germany, the UK, and Israel, sent from VPFAL’s Academic Immigration & Recruitment Senior Lead on September 10th.
VPFAL’s request normalizes institutional partnerships with Israel even as the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry has found that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide in Palestine. This finding comes in the wake not only of two years of relentless acceleration of Israel’s assault on Palestinian lives and human rights, but also the naming of this assault as genocide by international scholarly organizations and humanitarian groups. Many faculty, staff, and students at UofT have voiced opposition to partnerships with Israeli institutions on these grounds. VPFAL cannot possibly be unaware of this situation, which raises grave ethical and legal considerations about why it chooses to normalize relations with a genocidal state in the midst of ongoing genocide.
The UN Commission’s report urges Israel and all states to fulfill their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible. Similarly, the UofT administration has an obligation to honour its moral and ethical (and, quite possibly, legal) responsibility to refrain from engaging in activities that strengthen the university’s partnerships with the state of Israel while it engages in crimes against humanity. Israeli government officials have made explicit their efforts to destroy the viability of the Palestinian state, the legitimacy of which Canada itself has just recognized. Academic partnerships have been, and continue to be, a core aspect of normalizing what is quickly becoming a pariah state.
As supporters of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), we are sensitive to PACBI’s careful distinction between limiting academic freedom–including by targeting or boycotting individual scholars–-and refusing partnerships within academic institutions. And we recognize that the Canadian reciprocity work permit pathway at issue in this email is not an institutional partnership as such, as it operates at the level of individual scholars. To be clear, we do not object to the presence of Israeli scholars at UofT–some of whom are among the most important critics of the Israeli state.
Rather, we object to VPFAL’s normalization and fortification of institutional partnerships with Israel’s universities, actions which ignore the centrality of academic institutions within Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights and International law: As Israeli scholar Maya Wind demonstrates, Israel’s universities are not simply institutions of higher education and free inquiry. Many were explicitly founded as part of what the state of Israel calls ‘judeization’, the project of ethnic cleansing and the erasure of Palestinian culture, history, and existence in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. These universities violate academic freedom through rampant censorship, they violate international law by enforcing apartheid and illegally occupying Palestinian land outside of Israel’s internationally recognized borders (as is the case for HUJI, which the email names), and they host military research, development, and training programs in ways that cross every conceivable line of scholarly independence or academic integrity (as is the case for Technion, which the email also names).
Additionally, VPFAL’s request seeks to create special, accelerated pathways for Israeli scholars at the same time that the UofT administration has refused to work with our colleagues at Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk (PSSAR) to create any pathways for Palestinian scholars, even as they are being subjected to a genocidal and scholasticidal campaign that has specifically targeted educational infrastructure, including the physical destruction of every single one of Gaza’s 12 universities, and the targeting and detention of Palestinian scholars in the West Bank. This clearly flouts UofT’s statement of institutional purpose and statement on human rights, both which explicitly commit the university to the values of equal opportunity, equity and social justice.
We note also that, despite the swift and admirable actions the university administration took to secure opportunities for students and scholars from Ukraine in the aftermath of the Russian invasion, the administration has been unwilling to even consider similar actions not only for our Palestinian colleagues, but also for students and scholars from Sudan (where there is also an unfolding genocide), despite the strong diasporic connections within our community, as well as students and scholars from other global south countries with whom UofT has institutional partnerships, such as the Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative (AHEHC) and the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration.
Taken as a whole, this situation points to a troubling double standard that is deeply damaging to UofT’s reputation, is out of sync with other Canadian universities (see, for example, the University of Waterloo’s recent decision to not renew its partnership with Technion, or PSSAR’s productive work with the University of Alberta, Waterloo, Trent), and completely fails to fulfill UofT’s mission which rests on a “global outlook.”
We urge VPFAL to refrain from activities which normalize, strengthen, or otherwise capitalize on institutional partnerships with Israeli or other state institutions whenever and wherever those states commit genocide and other international crimes. We urge VPFAL to fulfill UofT’s stated commitments and turn its attention toward the creation of institutional and immigration supports for colleagues and students from Palestine and Sudan in particular, as well as other global south locations where scholarly partnerships are starved by the inequitable allocation of support reflected in VPFAL’s current efforts.
Below is the original email from VPFAL:
On Behalf Of UTM Academic HR
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 10:54 AM
To: HRADMIN-UTM-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA
Subject: Request for Information Regarding U of T Community Members in Germany, the UK, and Israel – Deadline: September 26th, 2025
Good morning everyone,
Please see the email below from VPFAL regarding an important data collection initiative to support upcoming recruitment and immigration processes.
We are being asked to provide information about any U of T faculty, researchers, or students who have participated in academic activities in Germany (since July 2024), or in the UK or Israel (within the past 7–10 years). This information will help strengthen U of T’s case for Canadian reciprocity work permits for incoming academics from these countries.
Action Required by Your Department:
- Update the Spreadsheet
Please update the spreadsheet with details of any relevant academic visits to Germany, the UK, or Israel. Include names and other requested details.
- Deadline
While the official submission deadline is September 26, we kindly ask that you complete the spreadsheet by Wednesday, September 24, 2025, to ensure we have sufficient time to review and consolidate the information.
- Access the Spreadsheet
You can access and edit the spreadsheet via the following SharePoint link:
Faculty International Activity Information
Once your department has updated the spreadsheet, please send your advisor a quick note to confirm completion.
If your department has not had any activity related to these countries, please let us know so we can update our records accordingly.
Thank you for your attention to this request. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Academic HR
Office of the Vice-Principal Academic & Dean
University of Toronto Mississauga
academichr.utm@utoronto.ca
Hello Dean’s Office and Academic HR colleagues,
In anticipation of upcoming recruitment and immigration requirements, I am reaching out to gather information about U of T students, faculty members, or researchers who have engaged in short or long-term academic activities in Germany since July 2024.
As you may recall, we utilize a Canadian reciprocity work permit pathway that relies on academic exchanges between institutions in Germany and the University of Toronto. Many departments within our university have successfully utilized this program for their new hires. To strengthen our case, we need to demonstrate that U of T community members have directly benefited from this program by participating in academic activities in these countries. When we apply for a reciprocity work permit, we submit details about the agreement and provide a list of U of T students, faculty members, or researchers who have travelled to Germany.
This year, we are going to expand to include the UK and Israel. U of T has many exchange agreements with universities and other large agencies in these countries. My hope is to gather enough proof of U of T academics and students and staff are going to the UK and Israel to justify the issuing of Canadian work permits to citizens of those countries. Below are details of the schools/institutions we have agreements with and the nature of the agreement.
Germany:
- We continue to rely on academic exchanges between German institutions and the University of Toronto. Your input on activities in Germany is crucial for maintaining this pathway.
United Kingdom:
- University of Oxford: Collaborative research projects and faculty exchanges in humanities and social sciences.
- University of Cambridge: Joint research initiatives and faculty mobility programs focusing on science and technology.
- London Business School: Exchange programs for Faculty and students, promoting cross-border business education and research.
- University of Warwick: Collaborative research and faculty exchanges in business and management studies.
- Imperial College London: Joint research projects and faculty exchanges in medical and health sciences.
- King’s College London: Collaborative initiatives in medical research and faculty mobility programs.
- University College London (UCL): Faculty exchanges and joint research projects in legal studies.
- University of Edinburgh: Collaborative research and faculty mobility in law and public policy.
Israel:
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Collaborative research projects and faculty exchanges in various disciplines, including humanities and social sciences
- Tel Aviv University: Joint research initiatives and faculty mobility programs focusing on science and technology
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology: Exchange programs for faculty and students, promoting cross-border education and research in engineering and technology
- Weizmann Institute of Science: Collaborative research and faculty exchanges in medical and health sciences
- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: Faculty exchanges and joint research projects in environmental studies and public policy
Action Required:
- Update the Attached Spreadsheet: Please review the attached spreadsheet and add new information on any faculty/researcher or students who have visited Germany, since 2024 and the UK, or Israel for the last seven to ten years. Please be sure to include the names and other details of those who have gone.
- Submission Deadline: Please return the updated spreadsheet to me by September 26th, 2025.
We will use this updated information to support U of T work permit applications for appointed (and potentially researchers) who are citizens of Germany, the UK, or Israel. If your department has not had any activity related to these countries, please let me know so I know not to expect a spreadsheet.
Thank you very much for your cooperation in this matter. If you have any questions or need further clarification, feel free to reach out.