Taina Maki-Chahal
Overview
Taina Maki-Chahal has demonized Israel and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.She is a professor in the Departments of Anthropology and English at Lakehead University (Lakehead).
Demonizing Israel
In 2015, Maki-Chahal taught a course titled “Anthropology of Violence & War,” in which there was a case study of “Israel and Palestine.” Included in the readings for the course were writings by Ilan Pappe and Dana Olwan. Maki-Chahal also showed her students the extended trailer of a film titled “Roadmap to Apartheid.”Maki-Chahal signed a petition, published on December 23, 2012, of “Palestinians in Solidarity with Idle No More.”
Signatories of the petition wrote “ As Palestinians, who struggle against settler colonialism, occupation and apartheid in our homeland and for the right of Palestinian refugees – the majority of our people – to return to our homeland, we stand in solidarity with the Idle No More movement of Indigenous peoples and its call for justice, dignity, decolonization and protection of the land, waters and resources.”
On February 27, 2009 Maki-Chahal presented a lecture titled “Virtual Palestine: Resources of Resistance.” The presentation was part of a series, titled “Palestine Awareness Night.”
Maki-Chahal also signed a letter to the mayor and deputy city manager, calling upon them to allow the work of anti-Israel artist Rehab Nazzal to be exhibited at a gallery in Ottawa, Canada.
Nazzal’s exhibition reportedly glorified terrorists responsible for the deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.
The letter Maki-Chachal signed stated that “more Canadians as well as others around the world who value justice and freedom have raised their voices to bring an end to the illegal occupation of the West Bank, the siege on Gaza, and to stop the apartheid practices by Israel.”
Signatories went on to allege a conspiracy of various Jewish organizations unified in an effort “to create a climate of silence around Israel’s ongoing and brutal occupation of Palestine and oppression of Palestinians” and that “The gap between the facts on the ground in Palestine, and the Israeli lobby’s fantastical fabrications grows wider and wider as a result.”
Supporting BDS
Maki-Chahal signed a 2014 American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) statement calling for the boycott of Israel.Signatories of the statement wrote that they “are circulating this petition to voice our opposition to the ongoing Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, including the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem, and to boycott Israeli academic institutions that are complicit in these violations.”
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Lakehead University
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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