Discours du Pr Izzeldin Abuelaish

Rector Professor Françoise Smets, Honored Guests, Faculty, and staff; ladies and gentlemen

It’s my great privilege to stand before you today and to have the opportunity speak to you.

I would like to dedicate this honor to the loved ones who are not with me today. My parents, wife, my daughters, and to those in Gaza, Palestine and across the world who are enduring the genocide, ethnic cleansing, horror, pain and dying in silence because of injustice, discrimination and oppression.

It’s a promising, gathering with a profound belief in the presence of hope.

I accept this honorary doctorate not as a symbol of personal triumph, but as a testimony to human endurance — to the idea that even from the deepest wounds, something meaningful can still be born.

Today, I stand before you with a heart that carries two worlds. One world exists within these walls — a world illuminated by knowledge, shaped by opportunity, and sustained by the quiet, powerful belief that tomorrow will come, and that it can be built with intention, dignity, and hope. 
The other lives beyond these walls and within a place called Gaza, where childhood was not a season of innocence, but a lesson in survival. Where I learned, far too early, that life is precious not because it is protected, but because it is constantly at risk of being taken away.

I am a Palestinian Canadian refugee who was born, raised, and lived in Jabalia refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip. The son of refugee parents who are survival of the Nakba in 1948 where they were expelled from their homeland. I speak to you today as someone whose people have been portrayed too often through fear instead of truth.

Let me tell you, our truth. We do not harbor a desire for revenge. We are people of potential, of hopes, of dreams. We want to succeed. We want to build. We want to be free — just as others are free. Freedom must not stop at the borders of Palestine. It must not stop at any border.

My life was and continues to be a war. My people and myself faced many challenges but as life increased our aches, pain and suffering at the same time life amplified our determination, awareness, strength and did not allow all the hardships to kill our dreams. And I realized that the suffering in this world is manmade. And because its manmade, it can be unmade. This is where hope begins.

What is War? Is it what we see on a screen — a soldier falling, a building collapsing, War is not headlines, or statistics. War is our children and grandchildren dying before their time—before they have had the chance to become who they were meant to be.

War is the daughter whose laughter is replaced by silence and parents who bury not only their children but their dreams. 
Its the mother who waits for a knock on the door that never comes. 
Its the old man who dies holding memories of a home that no longer exists.

It is bodies disfigured, minds wounded, spirits scarred for life. 
War is millions of people separated forever from those they love.

War is genocide, torture, propaganda, dishonesty, and slavery of humanity.  

War and injustice are not just to be documented but to be prevented.  

Dwight Eisenhower:  once said:  

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”  

Our role is to humanize not to politicize, and our loyalty must never be tested, manipulated or misused.

What do we expect from parents who cannot even mourn properly — who cannot bury their dead with the rituals that give meaning to loss — because even grief has been denied to them.

No one knows the suffering until they have suffered.  

No one knows freedom until they have lost it.  No one knows loss until it happens.  

I witnessed the killing of my daughters, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, neighbors and the genocide committed against my people. The killing does not heart the dead. It hurts the living and loving. And if the dead cannot speak it’s the responsibility of the living to speak for them.

“He who looks at the sea.  
Does not know the sea,  
He who sits on the shore.  
Does not know the sea,  
Only he who immerses himself dives, takes risk, and forgets the sea in the sea”.  

Yes, I have also saw the hope in the newborn lives I delivered.  

I learned that every life matters — equally. That pain has no nationality. That suffering has no borders.

And I am here to say there is hope and nothing is impossible in life. Right now, you are the hope, the new energy, and the new leaders with new vision.  

We have the knowledge, the talent, and the strength. What we need is the will – the will to make the world a better one. And by sharing our humanity and realizing that there are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.

What kind of people must you be? You must be people of values, and vision. Values grounded in respect for human dignity, and social justice. You must promote these values and live your lives by these values’ courage, and persistence. Not to continue turning a deaf ear or closed eye.  

To translate values into actions, who not only do things right, but who choose to do the right things at the right time. Do not underestimate or reject yourself. Do not say no until you try.  

The first step to failure is to lose confidence. And the opposite of success is not failure. Failure is the path, trigger, and incentive, to success. Don’t be afraid of failure. Be afraid of regret.

The true crisis of our world is not the absence of laws or the lack of rules, but the collapse of trust in them and the erosion of justice itself.  Our world stands at a crossroads: either we restore faith in international law, or we normalize impunity. Justice cannot be selective, human rights cannot be conditional, and accountability cannot belong to the weak alone. If international law is to mean anything, it must apply equally, enforced transparently, and applied by one universal standard—for all, or fit will protect none.

Tragedy cannot be the end of our lives; we cannot allow it to control and defeat us. I succeeded in my life, but I will never forget where I came from.  

The strongest members in any society are women. Women are the authors of the humanity’s survival story. They are the ones behind our existence and success.    

In a time and a world of despair and loss of hope, women have maintained hope. Women are the balance of our world.  Women give life, women nurture life.  

We must no longer say that behind every successful man stands a successful woman.  We need to say: parallel and side by side to a successful man stands a successful woman. There is no peace without women and no peace without respect of human rights.  

This is the education the world now needs: an education that is not only brilliant, but social, human, healthy, ethical, and peaceful.

Education taught me this: knowledge without conscience is dangerous, but knowledge guided by humanity can heal. Education is not just about careers; it is about responsibility. Not just about success, it is about significance.

Not only to advance science, but to ignite a paradigm shift from science to conscience.

Because science can tell us how to build systems, but conscience must tell us why — and for whom. Wherever there is injustice, choose to challenge it.  

Wherever there is silence, choose to speak out.  

Because life is not only what happens to us — It is what we decide to do about it.

We have priority in life. The priority