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York University
This is a message from the Students Against Israeli Apartheid
In the year 2005 an incident occurred on this campus that horrified students, community members
and hundreds more across the city
Do you recall that day when five students were violently beaten and arrested by police in Vari Hall?
A group of activist students and allies known as the Grass-Roots Anti-Imperialist Network
staged a peaceful protest against George W. Bush's re-inauguration
It was during this protest that they exposed your corporate ties to the Bush administration
such as Lockheed Martin
a corporation which is the largest overseas supplier for the Israeli armaments industry
supplying the Israeli army with F-16 fighter jets, F-35 fighter jets, hellfire missles
and tactical transport aircraft
While students in the Gaza Strip are massacred and mutilated by such weapons
students at York University
are obtaining their scholarships from their sale
And since that protest in 2005 against those ties
your administration began to actively cultivate
a culture of repression, surveillance, and coercive force in its efforts to quash dissent
The Temporary Use of Space Policy
the Student Code of Conduct
the dis-figuration of Vari Hall
and the creation of the Student Community and Leadership Development office
all a sly response to student activism on this campus
a response that we have proven time and again to be futile
You may have breathed a sigh of relief when the York community and the media finally stopped talking about that day in 2005
but rest assured
We have not forgotten
We have not forgotten how students were viciously assaulted by Metro Toronto Police
how they were dragged through Vari Hall
and into a room provided by your administration
and how inside this room
one of the arrested students was beaten so badly that he required hospitalization
We have not forgotten
and our message is this:
we will stand by our allies in times to come
and we will continue
where those brave students left off
we will continue to expose your ties with companies involved in war, occupation
and imperialism
and we will end your ties to Israeli Apartheid
We are the Palestine solidarity movement at York University
We are active within its halls
We are everywhere
We will not be silenced. We will not waver
in the face of administrative crackdowns. We are the student resistance
We are SAIA