The 15th annual Israeli Apartheid Week began its program at Stellenbosch University (SU) on Tuesday with a youth panel at Huis Russel Botman, facilitated by the SU Palestinian Solidarity Forum (PSF).
The panel, consisting of Mitchell Hunter of the advocacy group SA Jews for a Free Palestine and Lema Nezaah, a Palestinian human rights activist, discussed their reasons for supporting Palestinian sovereignty and outlined why South African universities should endorse a boycott of Israeli institutions of higher education.
This comes mere days after the University of Cape Town (UCT) council voted not to endorse a similar proposal which would have seen the university prohibited from entering into any formal academic relationship with Israeli institutions of higher education situated in Palestinian territory allegedly occupied by Israel.
On March 30, the UCT Council made a decision not to boycott Israeli institutions of higher education. PHOTO: Pixabay
While the council’s decision is still being disputed at UCT, the SU PSF is advocating for a similar process to be undertaken at SU for reasons discussed in the youth panel.
“[Supporting] an academic boycott is the best way in which students can become involved in activism,” says Hunter. “Israeli universities are complicit in their state’s injustices, and the response ought to be not endorsing them through academic exchange.”
Nezaah—in response to concerns surrounding the implications such a boycott might have on academic freedom—claims that “the academic boycott does not in any way prohibit free speech.”
“Zionist organizations and pro-Israel groups ought to be allowed to operate freely on campus. The only thing which needs to change is university policy relating to academic exchange with Israeli universities.”
The youth panel, consisting of Mitchell Hunter (left) and Lema Nezaah (centre), was facilitated by the SU PSF. PHOTO: Byron Mühlberg
In a statement released by South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) National Chairperson, Ben Swartz, the notion of an academic boycott is a threat to academic freedom.
“The unconstitutional [UCT] resolution would have discriminated against Jewish and Christian students and academics, and severely undermined academic freedom at the institution,” writes Swartz.
Boycotting Israeli universities would prevent access to “world-leading water, agricultural, medical and scientific technology developed at Israeli institutions that could be used to benefit all South Africans” Swartz concludes.