Anti-Palestinian Racism Motion

A Motion for the Adoption of the Definition of Anti-Palestinian Racism by the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA) was proposed but according to CSA meeting practices and Bylaws, a vote on the motion could not be conducted at the AGM. The motion was deferred for a remote ballot of the membership.

The membership was invited to cast their votes from July 7 through August 6, 2025.

The following motions were approved with a majority of votes cast;

Motion 1: BE IT RESOLVED that the Canadian Sociological Association recognizes and opposes anti-Palestinian racism as described above, and as sociologists, we commit to by applying and expanding this framework to address the complexity and intersections of anti-Palestinian racism.

Motion 2: BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Canadian Sociological Association promotes and encourages other academic associations to adopt policies recognizing and opposing anti-Palestinian racism. 

Full Motion on Anti‑Palestinian Racism for the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA)

WHEREAS Palestinians have been subject to ongoing dispossession, occupation, apartheid and genocide since the inception of the state of Israel;

WHEREAS the assaults on Palestinians and their right to existence and self- determination have reached unprecedented and unspeakable levels of atrocity since October 2023;

WHEREAS the ongoing genocide of Palestinians is a key issue for our time and discipline;

WHEREAS academics, scholars, students, including children, and others who publicly support and advocate for Palestinians in their struggle against oppression, apartheid, occupation, and violence have been defamed, disciplined, bullied, subject to intimidation, removed from employment, and subject to various material consequences;

WHEREAS the Canadian Sociological Association has a long-standing commitment to anti- racism and social justice;

WHEREAS the urgency for sociologists to name and frame anti-Palestinian racism is rooted in longstanding Palestinian critiques of the phenomenon known as “Progressive Except for Palestine,” wherein, anti-Palestinian racism is systematically expelled from academia and anti racist discourses through the framing of Palestinian critiques as toxic and toxifying to anti-racist struggles (see Ayyash, 2022; Elia,2017; Hill & Plitnick, 2021);

WHEREAS the erasure and silencing of anti-Palestinian racism has contributed to its remaining unnamed, and its incorporation into anti‑racist frameworks which inadequately account for the specific and intersectional forms of violence, marginalization, and racialization experienced by Palestinians and their allies, including its decoupling from settler-colonialism (see Bakan & Abu-Laban, 2024);

WHEREAS the experiences of racism faced by Palestinians and their allies are increasingly named as “anti-Palestinian racism,” a framing emergent from the Palestinian solidarity movement founded on principles of anti-racism (see Majid, 2022; The Canadian Guide to Understanding and Combatting Islamophobia, produced by the Office of the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia);

WHEREAS sociologists, scholars, and social‑justice activists have been, and continue to actively work to name and frame anti‑Palestinian racism as a distinct, yet structurally interconnected, form of racism (see Abu‑Laban & Bakan 2021, 2022; Ayyash 2022; Bakan & Abu‑Laban 2024; Davis, 2016; Erakat & Hill, 2019; Majid, 2022; The Canadian Guide to Understanding and Combatting Islamophobia, produced by the Office of the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia);

WHEREAS a useful starting point for naming and framing anti-Palestinian racism is to understand it as a form of racism that “silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives” and which manifests in various forms, including but not limited to:

• “denying the Nakba and justifying violence against Palestinians;

• failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine;

• erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians;

• excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies;
• defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values.” (Majid, 2022, p.14);

WHEREAS anti-Palestinian racism is not reducible to anti-Arab racism alone, but intersects with anti-Arab racism, Orientalism, Islamophobia, and anti‑Black racism, including the specific forms of racism faced by Afro-Palestinians. Afro‑Palestinians have struggled against anti‑Blackness to be recognized as Palestinians living under settler- colonialism. They have been fundamental to the Palestinian struggle for liberation, yet have also faced intensified surveillance and punishment due to the confounding of racisms and settler-colonialism (see Mihatsch, 2024). Thus, anti-Palestinian racism manifests in diverse, intersectional, yet distinct ways, including implicit, overt, institutional, and systemic forms. It must therefore be named and recognized as a distinct form of racism.

BE IT RESOLVED that the Canadian Sociological Association recognizes and opposes anti-Palestinian racism as described above, and as sociologists, we commit to by applying and expanding this framework to address the complexity and intersections of anti-Palestinian racism.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Canadian Sociological Association promotes and encourages other academic associations to adopt policies recognizing and opposing anti-Palestinian racism.

References
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Abu-Laban, Y. and Bakan, A.B. (2022). Anti-Palestinian Racism and Racial Gaslighting.
The Political Quarterly, 93: 508-516.
Abu-Laban, Y. and Bakan, A.B. (2021). Anti-Palestinian Racism: Analyzing the
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Bakan, A. B., & Abu-Laban, Y. (2024). Anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism, and
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Davis, A.Y. (2016). Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the
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Elia, N. (2017) Justice is indivisible: Palestine as a feminist issue. Decolonization:
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Hill, M. L., & Plitnick, M. (2021). Except for Palestine : the limits of progressive politics
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Majid D (2022) Naming & framing anti-Palestinian racism. Arab Canadian Lawyers
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https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61db30d12e169a5c45950345/t/627dcf83fa17ad4
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The Office of the Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. (2025). The
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https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/combatting-islamophobia-
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