Over these last weeks, as Israel’s military machine has mounted an industrialized killing operation against hundreds of thousands of trapped people in Gaza, I have echoed the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” I don’t agree for a moment that this is an expression of antisemitic hatred or an incitement to genocide.

I stand before Guernica, the familiar canvas of dismembered bodies, dead babies and soldiers; a weeping mother, a shrieking horse; once remembered for its chronicle of carnage, warnings of mass murder to come, enough to move the dial from tragedy to statistic, now forgotten. Silence has settled upon the world, snuffed out by apologists for the sacred State’s need for human sacrifice.

What does “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” actually mean? And when it comes to political slogans, should impact matter more than intent? As Carleton University professor Mira Sucharov explains, the controversy the chant generates suggests there is work to be done in better communicating with and understanding one another.

As those of us in Toronto watch the devastation occurring in Gaza, where Israel’s bombing campaign this month is estimated to have killed over 8,000 Palestinians, including over 3,000 children, and displaced 1.4 million residents, we are also witnessing Mayor Olivia Chow and other politicians condemning Palestinian activism here as antisemitic.

A call for an immediate ceasefire is a call to stop this massacre. Nothing more, nothing less. Several states, non-governmental organizations, and international legal experts support this call, and global civil society is mobilizing to urge all governments to demand a ceasefire. So, we ask: where is Canada?

In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we are relying upon ill-prepared faith and community organizations, staffed by volunteers, to do what the state should be doing—to welcome and to accommodate vulnerable, displaced people who have arrived here, often by a perilous journey, to seek a safe haven and to start a new life.

The global ruling class will counter the destabilizing forces of inequality, curtailment of civil liberties, collapsing infrastructure, failing health systems and increasing shortages caused by an accelerating climate crisis, by branding all who resist as “human animals.” As Chris Hedges writes, this new world order began in Gaza. It ends at home.

Canada recently passed a milestone by announcing the resettlement of more than 40,000 Afghan refugees since the Taliban recaptured Kabul in August 2021. Yet, with many applications still pending, the federal government has a moral responsibility to assist Afghan refugees who continue to flee the oppressive rule of the theocratic regime.

My greatest wish—as a student and a human being—is to live in a world where all peoples, regardless of race, creed, or faith, can live in peace and dignity. A world where children can grow up free from the horrors of war. We must fight, when all seems dim, so that the world of our dreams can be born. We must fight on, for hope.

How do you tell a student who earnestly feels that they are in danger that you think their fears are unfounded or exaggerated? That was the question that came to me in the classroom, and the one that animated this essay. Maybe it’s unnecessary. A group chat of fellow adjuncts and late-term PhDs who share my politics have advised me to keep my head down.