SA Zionist Federation welcomes UCT’s decision on Israeli universities boycott

The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) has expressed jubilation at the decision of the University of Cape Town’s Council to reject the academic boycott motion against Israeli universities.

The motion was put before the Council on Saturday for a vote, but it voted to reject it by snubbing an earlier decision supporting the matter by the university’s Senate.

There had been efforts to spread the Israel boycott to universities and the UCT Council decision came as snub against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement in South Africa’s (BDS) efforts to have Israel isolated by all sectors in South Africa.

The BDS had been lobbying UCT to implement an academic boycott of its Israeli counterparts. Israel was accused of illegally occupying Palestinian territories, discriminating against Palestinians and committing atrocities against the area’s citizens.

The campaign was boosted when on March 15 the UCT Senate took a decision not to enter into any formal relationships with Israeli universities operating in occupied Palestinian territories.

ALSO READ: SA Jewish board praises UCT Council for refusing to boycott Israel

The Jewish community under the South African News for Free Palestine and a number of academics from various universities around the world and a few from Israel itself, such as Tel Aviv University linguistics professor, Rachel Giora, support the boycott of Israel.

The council was the last structure to vote on the matter and its decision was expected to leave a bitter taste in the mouth of the pro-boycott lobby. The matter would now go back to the Senate.

Ben Swartz, national chairperson of South African Zionist Federation said the repudiation of the boycott by Council was an important victory over the BDS-aligned groups.

“The unconstitutional resolution would have discriminated against Jewish and Christian students and academics, and severely undermined academic freedom at the institution,” Swartz said.

He said the ramifications of a boycott of Israel universities included the erosion of academic freedom at UCT, permanent reputational damage, a fall in international university rankings, the loss of quality students and academics wishing to pursue their work without restriction, the risk of counter-boycott measures by international universities, and the perception that UCT is not a friendly place for Jewish students.

“Importantly, it would prevent UCT from accessing world-leading water, agricultural, medical and scientific technology developed at Israeli institutions that could be used to benefit all South Africans,” Swartz said.

“UCT must now irrevocably reject this campaign of hate against Israel. We call on the university to show courage, dismiss the academic boycott campaign outright, and spend its precious time on other pressing issues relevant to South Africa and its student body,” Swartz added.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.