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PLEDGE/DÉCLARATION

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/LISTE DES SIGNATAIRES

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MFAs AGAINST GENOCIDE


  • We are calling for an individual and an institutional boycott of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art. Funds for this award are generated, in part, through investments in cyber surveillance firms working with the IDF. (1) 



We demand that Concordia University and UQAM provide graduate students with fellowship opportunities that do not implicate them in funds made through investment in Israel's ongoing genocide in Palestine.

We demand that Concordia University and UQAM continue to provide the existing institution-contributed benefits of the prize, including an exhibition, public lecture, and teaching opportunities.

We demand that Concordia University and UQAM provide professional support to launch graduate studio arts students' futures that is more equitable and dispersed than a singular large award.



FAQ



WHY BOYCOTT
THE FELLOWSHIP?

Since 2010, this Fellowship has been presented as "one of Canada's most generous fellowships for emerging artists." (2) However, the funds for this fellowship are raised and managed by the philanthropic arm of Claridge Inc; Stephen Bronfman's Montreal-based private equity firm that primarily invests in public and private equity, hedge funds, real estate, and technology (3). In 2015, Claridge Inc. opened a parallel firm in Tel Aviv focused on Israeli investment which “was initiated through a partnership between Claridge Inc., the Stephen Bronfman Family Office, and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of Canada’s largest institutional investors.” (4)

Claridge Israel's investments are focused on the Israeli tech industry. In 2018, Claridge Israel invested $30 million USD in Cyberbit Ltd., a cyber security, warfare, and espionage company with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as one of their key clients (5). Cyberbit was founded in 2015 as a subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd. by a former Israeli intelligence officer who spent over 15 years in the Israeli army (6). In 2017, Cyberbit was investigated by The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. The Lab found the Cyberbit was engaged in developing, marketing, and selling spyware to multiple governments in order to surveil political dissidents (7). Cyberbit proudly states that their products are “proven in the field”(8), a claim echoed by Elbit Systems Ltd (9), which provides up to 85% of the IDF’s drones and 80% of their vehicles and land equipment (10). Elbit is the foremost contractor for the IDF, and the company maintains a minority stake in Cyberbit (11). 

Claridge Israel and Cyberbit have direct links to the IDF's "Unit 8200" cyber intelligence unit, "responsible for clandestine operation, collecting signal intelligence and code decryption, counterintelligence, cyber-warfare, military intelligence, and surveillance." (12) For example, Rami Hadar, the current Managing Partner of Claridge Israel (13) and Adi Dar, the founder of Cyberbit (14) are both alumni of this unit.

Additionally, Claridge Israel's investments include D-fend Solutions which contributes to the maintenance of the militarized perimeter of the Israeli occupation by producing "an autonomous counter-drone system, designed for urban environments" for Israeli's defense ministry (15, 16, 17, 18). D-fend Solutions is also employed by the United States departments of War and Homeland Security (19). 

This boycott effort is not about moral purity; rather we believe it is important to work with the information that we know and to refuse to participate in the art-washing of occupation and genocide through awards and exhibitions. We know where this money comes from, and so we cannot afford to accept it.


WHY NOW?

As of now, due to the combined efforts the Israeli state, it's colonial allies, and private companies like those listed above, there are over 1.5 million people suffering in forced starvation and over 186,000 dead with additional thousands missing in Palestine (20). 

We call for a boycott of The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art now because we have the community power to do so. Following other successful international and national campaigns by fellow artists and writers, we know that we have the collective power to refuse complicity and force change in how we fund the arts (21, 22). 

As global pressure increases, we are seeing large-scale investors unable to ignore calls to divest from Israel. 

For example, in August, 2025, La Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec announced that it is in the process of selling off its investments (valued between $400M - $600M CAD) in Claridge Israel, the partner firm of Claridge Inc. La Caisse cited that "we are fully aware that this is not a good time to invest in Israel."(23, 24, 25)

If even La Caisse has come to the conclusion that investing in Claridge implicates them in the economy of genocide, then we believe it is in the best interest of Concordia University and UQAM to also end its partnerships with the Stephen Bronfman Family’s firms.

WHY A BOYCOTT?

Joining larger movements to boycott, divest, and sanction, we call on all prospective applicants, previous recipients and applicants, faculty, staff, community members, alumni, and allies to pledge to boycott this Fellowship and refuse the further normalization of the genocidal state of Israel that this money entails. 

Boycotts are a directed and impactful method of removing support from institutions and companies to create social change. We use this tactic as defined by the international, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which has been extremely effective since 2005 at reducing support for Israel as it enacts genocide on Palestinians (26). BDS is inspired by the cultural and economic boycotts of apartheid South Africa, which made it increasingly unfeasible for the apartheid state to function. The boycott was lifted when the violent and unjust conditions of apartheid ended in 1994. (27)

We call for both an individual and an institutional boycott: 

  • Eligible and Future Applicants: join us in boycotting The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art by refusing to apply, promote, or be promoted by the philanthropic arm of Claridge Inc. We refuse to offer our art as cover for the maintenance of settler colonial occupation and genocide.
  • Concordia University’s and UQAM's administration and Fine Arts faculty: In offering this award, our institutions obfuscate the investments that fund the fellowship. Faculty and staff can join the boycott by refusing to serve on the selection committee, refusing to process applications, and by sharing information about our boycott.


WHY SHOULD I PLEDGE TO BOYCOTT? I JUST WON'T APPLY.

  • A silent boycott has no impact on the institution because there is no articulation of why you are not participating– it is indistinguishable from a forgotten deadline. 
  • Boycotts are a collective action. A “silent boycott”—where individuals withdraw their support alone and without a public campaign—cannot grow, and therefore cannot apply pressure on the institution to change. We boycott together in order to support each other’s actions and build a movement that will be renewed until our demands are met.


CAN I JUST APPLY AND IF I WIN, I'LL DO SOMETHING?

Your first instinct may be “why can’t I apply and then promise to donate some of the money or make a statement as the winner of the award?” The nature of this award makes the boycott our most effective tactic, because: 

  • Receiving the funds at all legitimizes their source. The philanthropic activities of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation launders the reputational damage they incur from their direct link with Claridge.
  • Even if the award winner puts the money towards a good cause or makes a statement, the institution will use the winner to show that they allow for all voices to be heard and that they listen to “both sides,” thus tokenizing the award winner in order to further normalize and wash away the institution’s support for genocide.
  • Would you rather stand alone or together?


YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS ALONE. WHAT CAN WE ACHIEVE?

You are not alone: This boycott is made of a strong community of artists, educators, and organizations who put action behind their beliefs and refuse to provide cover for the artwashing of genocide. 

Boycotting The Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Fellowship in Contemporary Art will pressure Concordia University to divest from a partnership that is complicit in genocide. We demand that Concordia University and UQAM continue to provide the benefits of the prize including an exhibition, public lecture, and teaching opportunities, from alternative funding sources.

This campaign is a focused on one prize. We aim to apply sustained pressure on our universities, Concordia University and UQAM, because we as students have strategic leverage. This is not the only prize in the arts that is funded by an institution that is complicit in genocide, nor is it the site of our universities' only complicity in the Isreali occupation and genocide. Our impact is at its strongest when we work together towards specific, collective ends, and this is one place where we can create a change. 

By joining this boycott, you will be a part of the vast and growing number of artists, cultural workers, academics, and community members who have put their names and voices behind the call to end to the Israeli settler colonial occupation and genocide. 

  • PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (28)) Signatories in Montreal include: Ada X, articule, Atelier La Coulée, Céline Bureau, Centre Clark, Centre des arts actuels SKOL, Dazibao, Metonymy Press, Oboro, PME-ART, and Vidéographe
  • Two years ago, over 4000 Canadian artists and cultural workers signed a public letter in solidarity with Palestine (29).


WHAT WOULD I BE GIVING UP IF I JOINED THE BOYCOTT?  

Joining the boycott means giving up a very slim chance at short-term funding. Graduates should not have to feel that this is one of their only options to support themselves to pursue a thriving and promising artistic career. 

Since 2010, the fellowship has been awarded annually to two graduating or recently graduated students, one from the Concordia Faculty of Fine Arts and one from UQAM’s Faculty of Arts. The selected recipients each receive approximately $40,000 a year, for two years. This salary, while enticing for many emerging artists, raises the question; 

Is two years of living slightly above Montreal's poverty line worth a lifelong moral quandary and public association with funds deeply implicated in Israel's violent occupation and destruction of Palestine?

This fellowship’s reputation as “too-good-to-pass-up” falls in line with the current environment of arts underfunding and budget cuts as well as the real lack of “life-changing” grant opportunities. We acknowledge that arts organizations are bound to supplement public funding through philanthropic contributions, but we believe that such awards should not be so rare and should never be funded by genocide.

We do not have enough, and still we cannot accept this.

WHAT IS THE CONTEXT?

For over 700 days, Israel has been waging a genocide on Palestinians. While official reports state that there are now over 186,000 dead, current projections estimate that there could as many as 680,000 murdered by Israel since October 2023 (30). Many more people in Gaza struggling to survive in tents without food, water, and medicine (31). Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank continue to face incursions by the IDF and armed settlers, indiscriminate arrests, and indefinite incarceration (including children) (32). Over the last two years, we have witnessed the extent to which our institutions and governments are dedicated to complicity in genocide– whether through direct military funding and equipment shipments or through the massive rise in policing and private security levelled against student protests for Palestine, as we have experienced here at Concordia University (33, 34).

We do not call this boycott now only because the extent of current Israeli violence is unbearable, even though it is. Israel is an apartheid state built on stolen land and we refuse to normalize the continued occupation of Palestine that has been ongoing for over 75 years.

WHAT IS ARTWASHING?

Artwashing is the use of the arts and culture to obscure the violence of states and private companies. With small investments in underfunded creative sectors, states and companies are able to rebrand as benevolent benefactors of culture, distracting from the tangible violence required to build wealth, extract resources, and seize land.

“Israel overtly uses culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash, or artwash, its genocide in Gaza and underlying regime of settler-colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation over the Indigenous Palestinian people. Israel’s genocide has included a deliberate obliteration of archeological sites and cultural heritage across Gaza.” (35) 

WHAT ABOUT THE PAST BRONFMAN FELLOWS?

Our colleagues who are past Bronfman Fellowship Award recipients are not the focus of this effort. There was no collective organizing when they were applying, and we are focused on building a collective refusal among future would-be recipients. We are in the position to make a choice together and our shared strength is exponentially more impactful than one person quietly refusing to apply alone. Moving forward, we cannot pretend ignorance as to what it means to participate in this award. The associations with this award is changing both within the institution and the broader community.

We are working in consultation with past winners. We know from these consultations that winning this award comes with serious moral and career implications.

 Past winners have shared that: 
  • They do not know how to proceed knowing what they know now 
  • That they would not have applied if they knew extent of violence associated with this fund
  • The limited financial stability provided by this award is in direct opposition to the decolonial and environmental values upheld in their practices and communities
  • The moral complications of accepting this award are following them longer than the short term financial support 


WHAT CAN I DO?