The University of South Africa Calls for Ceasefire and the Cessation of Genocidal Attacks by the State of Israel on Palestinian People
Source : UNISA Statement 24 May 2024
We, the Senate of the University of South Africa (UNISA), the highest academic decision-making body at the University as prescribed by the South African Higher Education Act 101 of 1997(as amended) and Statute of the University of South Africa, has deliberated on the grand questions of our time including, especially the issues surrounding the situation in Gaza and Palestine.
Our deliberations have been informed by diverse scholarly perspectives including matters of law, education, science, global justice, politics, the history of Palestine, critical theological discourses, and of course ethical thought. Our engagement has also been informed by and undergirded by our recall and memory of our own struggles against colonialism and apartheid. The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and an esteemed alumnus of Unisa aptly described the conditions of Palestinians as “an open-air prison.”
We make this statement understanding fully well the role that international solidarity played in supporting our struggles against colonialism and apartheid. In our efforts to assert and confirm our human dignity and freedom, we are therefore intimately aware of our moral responsibilities as people, as South Africans, as UNISA scholars in general, and as senators in particular.
From these perspectives we note:
- The historical context of the present genocidal activities by the State of Israel in Gaza did not begin on the attacks on 7 th October 2023 by Hamas. They form a continuation
of the Zionist colonial movement that has systematically oppressed the people of Palestine and dispossessed them of their land since 1948. The Gaza strip has been
under siege and total blockade since 2007. Since October 2023, the world has witnessed a horrific military war on the people of Gaza; - In March 2024, South Africa approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and presented a compelling legal case against Israel on the enforcement of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa vs Israel);
- The appalling and rising number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza, the majority of whom are women and children;
- The closure of the Rafah crossing that has resulted in Gaza being fully isolated from crucial humanitarian assistance, leaving Gazans stranded since they will no longer have the option to exit through Rafah and find secure shelter elsewhere;
- The escalating scale of Israeli obstruction of humanitarian aid entering Gaza and consequently leading to increasing famine, diseases and the decimation of life;
- The continued destruction of physical infrastructure including utilities and homes;
- The repeated displacements of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Palestinian civilians;
- In particular, as academics, we note with horror the near complete destruction of education in Gaza, including the complete destruction or incapacitation of all higher education institutions, as well as the harassment, imprisonment and murder of many Palestinian intellectuals, scholars, university staff and students;
- We note that the Zionists are abusing and trivialising the important anti-discrimination concept of antisemitism to silence, mute and undermine the justice-seeking voices
and the calls for justice against the violence and war perpetuated against the Palestinians. These distortions that generally are embodied in theological and political distortions pelted under the guise of “antisemitism”, must be condemned.
Against this background we:
- Strongly denounce the destruction of educational infrastructure, and the harassment, imprisonment and murder of Palestinian intellectuals, scholars, university staff and students by the State of Israel;
- Endorse the global demand for an immediate and permanent cessation of hostilities in Gaza (and other Palestinian territories), the secure transportation of humanitarian assistance and relief to the people of Gaza, and the repatriation of all Palestinian detainees, whether they are from Gaza or other Palestinian territories, as well as the release of all Israeli hostages;
- Endorse the academic boycott of Israel as declared by the worldwide Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and as such commit to halting all academic connections with Israeli higher education and research institutions and organisations that officially endorse the ongoing genocidal activities by the State of Israel in Gaza;
- Urge other universities around the world to make similar and /or related commitments;
- Commit to the idea of borderless education and to capitalising on our unique assets of a comprehensive open distance learning system to directly support education for the Palestinian people;
- Call on the Council of UNISA to instruct UNISA’s asset managers to divest any investments UNISA holds in Israeli companies, and companies supplying materials and weapons used by the State of Israel in their ongoing genocidal activities in Gaza;
- Endorse the South African government’s legal actions against Israel. We accede to the call of our first democratic President of the post-apartheid South Africa, President Nelson R Mandela and the esteemed alumnus of UNISA : “But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” (1997). We are making a call to denunciate violence and genocide and to annunciate advocacy towards justice, peace, and the rebuilding of the Palestine and Gaza and the educational
system for the people of Palestine.
End:-
Electronically Signed:
Principal and Vice-Chancellor & Chairperson of the UNISA Senate
“I am a physician, and as a consequence I see things most clearly in medical terms. I am arguing that we need an immunization program, one that injects people with respect, dignity, and equality. One that inoculates them against hatred.”
― Izzeldin Abuelaish, I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity