South African higher academic institutions have called for a ceasefire and the promotion of education in Palestine-Israel
The University of Pretoria says it will be “reworking the draft document” tabled by staff and students recommending a boycott of Israeli institutions over the war on Palestine, following a senate meeting on Tuesday.
“Following this discussion, a decision was made to obtain input from a broader representation of stakeholders across the university community and to rework the draft document tabled by a group of concerned staff and students,” the University of Pretoria’s spokesperson Rikus Delport told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday.
In the draft document, pro-Palestine supporters have asked the university to boycott all Israeli academic institutions and have called for an audit of the University of Pretoria’s investments with Israel.
“We request the university to audit … all agreements and contracts to determine if these are with Israeli academic institutions, Israeli-owned businesses or companies, or other entities complicit in supporting Israel oppressing the Palestinian people, and to further request the university to end all such relationships,” the draft says.
However, the university said the “senate is only representative of one university stakeholder group” and therefore the senate “does not have the mandate to pass such resolutions”.
Last week, the lead convener of the draft document Marc Wegerif said a clear stance from the university in solidarity with Palestinians was important “firstly because it is an important institution — the largest contact university and one of the top-ranked universities in South Africa — and secondly because of its own problematic history”.
Wegerif was referring to how, during apartheid, the University of Pretoria had a history of collaboration with and support for the white minority government that shaped the agenda of the institution.
“It claims to have transformed. This is a test of whether the University of Pretoria will today redeem itself and stand with the oppressed,” he told the M&G.
Other higher learning institutions, such as Nelson Mandela University, the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Western Cape (UWC), have passed resolutions in support of Palestine and resolved to end academic relations with Israel-affiliated establishments.
On 6 May, Nelson Mandela University said it would “refrain from entering into business negotiations and/or contractual agreements with businesses and/or companies of Israeli origin and/or that are complicit in supporting Israel in oppressing the Palestinian people”.
Similarly, UCT said on 24 June no academic from the university “may enter into relations, or continue relations with, any research group and/or network whose author affiliations are with the Israeli Defence Force, and/or the broader Israeli military establishment”.
Four days later, UWC said in its own statement that it would “fully disengage from Israeli academic institutions, in line with The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel guidelines”.
While the University of the Witwatersrand did not explicitly mention its efforts to divest from Israel, on 5 July its senate passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and added that it would establish efforts to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people.
“We further commit to providing meaningful and ongoing academic support to the re-building of the education and health systems in Palestine, within the mandate of Wits University,” it said. This was after pro-Palestinian students at the university held a five-day encampment in front of its Great Hall building in early May.
The students said they had faced hostility from Wits after security officials removed their gazebo from the grounds.
Last December, South Africa launched a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
In an advisory opinion on 19 July, the court said Israel must withdraw from occupied Palestinian land “as rapidly as possible” because it was breaching international law.
A previous article erroneously reported that a resolution had been reached by the University of Pretoria. We regret the error.