Open Letter to President David Naylor Dear President David Naylor: Over 1400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip of whom 412 are children and 110 are women, and over 50,000 have been left homeless. The Israeli attacks destroyed educational institutions, including the Islamic University of Gaza and four United Nations schools: al-Fakhora school in Jabaliya refugee camp, Asma elementary school in Gaza City, the Primary School of Beit Lahiya and the American School in Gaza city. The Islamic University is the first and most important institution of higher education in Gaza, serving more than 20,000 students, 60 percent of whom are women. In 2007, you spoke loudly against the call for a boycott of Israeli universities, a form of non-violent resistance to injustice, in the name of academic freedom. To add to that you visited Israeli universities this past summer to advocate stronger ties with our own institution, but were remised not to have visited one Palestinian university. If you are truly concerned about academic freedom, then where is your outrage at the bombing of a Palestinian university Your silence speaks volumes. We the undersigned students and parents at the University of Toronto, hereby call on you to rupture the silence and condemn the bombing of universities and educational institutions in Gaza.

Sponsor