To the Administration of McGill,

I am writing to express my deep concern about the continued existence of the Israel exchange trip course known as POLI 339. The summer course includes a two-week exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

After two years of genocide, and with eighty-five percent of Gaza’s population in the fifth and most catastrophic stage of malnutrition, it is abhorrent to normalize the well-documented and violent occupation of Palestine. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem operates in direct violation of international law, with parts of its campus built in occupied Jerusalem. Palestinian homes were confiscated to expand the university’s Mount Scopus campus. The university hosts an active military base and is home to the Havatzalot officer training program, which prepares recruits for the Israeli Occupation Forces — including Unit 8200, the division responsible for developing AI-powered targeting systems that have been used to identify and kill Palestinians. Many of its students have served in the IDF during the genocide of Gaza. It is beyond unacceptable for this course to resume.

McGill students have made their demands clear: divest from genocide and end all complicit academic partnerships. The recent Strike for Palestinian Liberation and the ratification of the SSMU Policy Against Genocide in Palestine have only reaffirmed where the McGill community stands.

I deeply condemn the re-emergence of this course and demand its immediate cessation.

Signed,