Montreal, October 31, 2025 — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) welcomes the decision of an Ontario court to dismiss a complaint against the University of Windsor over its agreement with the student-led Palestinian solidarity encampment (“Palestine Liberation Zone”). Pro-Israel lobby group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) had sought to strike down the agreement over its provision to refrain from partnerships with Israeli institutions, but the court rejected CIJA’s argument that a boycott of Israel is discriminatory.
CJPME views this decision as affirmation of the right of universities to pursue an academic boycott of Israel, and hopes that this will embolden the academic community across Canada to adopt similar measures in support of the Palestinian people.
“This is a victory for uWindsor students who do not want their university to partner with Israeli universities complicit in genocide and apartheid,” said Michael Bueckert, Acting President of CJPME. “While supporters of Israel and many university administrators have tried to paint academic boycotts as discriminatory, their argument has been decisively rejected in court,” added Bueckert.
The University of Windsor signed the agreement with the Palestine Liberation Zone on July 10, 2024, bringing an end to the student encampments on campus. The agreement included a commitment from the University “not pursue any institutional academic agreements with Israeli universities until the right of Palestinian self-determination has been realized,” unless supported by the Senate. This led to a major backlash by supporters of Israel who tried to bully the university into abandoning its agreement with students: donors threatened to pull funding to the university; federal officials promised to intervene and overturn the decision; and pro-Israel lobby group Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) filed the complaint with the Government of Ontario, which was just dismissed.
The court rejected CIJA’s arguments that the agreement was discriminatory in part because it focuses on institutional academic partnerships and “does not prevent individual academics at the University of Windsor from working (or collaborating) with academics in Israel.” CJPME notes that this aligns the university agreement with the ethical guidelines set by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which does not target individuals based on their identity.
CJPME supports the agreement between uWindsor and the Palestine Liberation Zone and believes that an academic boycott is a necessary response to Israeli scholasticide in Gaza, including the targeted annihilation of Palestinian universities and schools. Last year, CJPME wrote to Ministers Champagne and Holland urging them to recommend an academic boycott of Israel, directly modelled on Canada’s March 2022 guidelines in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.