UCT boycott motion to be discussed

21 November 2019

University students are facing an impending crisis. Many are left homeless at the beginning of the year, whether due to lack of space in university residences or because they cannot afford the exorbitant prices of accommodation off campus. Many further face expulsion from universities because they simply can no longer afford it. There is no work for graduates, let alone for students who need to finance their degrees. Rolling blackouts are leaving many studying by candlelight. What are we as a society, as partners in education, doing to alleviate the struggles of our fellow students?

Nothing, it appears, beyond voting to boycott Israel.

The Palestinian Solidarity Forum (PSF) at the University of Cape Town has been trying to implement an academic boycott of Israel for several years now. They form part of the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign that has been actively trying to isolate Israel in the international arena and has called for its destruction on numerous occasions. Instead of addressing the real issues that face South Africans, these activists gaze over the bodies of homeless and hungry students into the distance of a conflict far removed from us, blurred by thousands of years of conquests, poor decisions by all parties involved and egos.

There is no doubt that Israel is not perfect – no country is. There are real issues facing Palestinians, as well as minorities within Israel proper, including Israeli Ethiopians. These need to be addressed, and indeed are being addressed. Organisations like Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education, the African Refugee Development Center and Blue and White Rights are doing outstanding work bringing together Jewish and Arab children with bilingual education, training African refugees in coding and helping them receive their matric certificate, and protecting Palestinian rights in the West Bank. These organisations are motivated by a shared mission of helping both Israelis and Palestinians grow closer together with a dedication for their country and a commitment to human rights. They are dealing with these issues with the sensitivity, intimate knowledge, and lived experience required to navigate complex issues emerging from decades of conflict.

These are the kinds of actions that need to be taken - actual grassroots campaigns that aim to improve the lives of the people living under the Palestinian Authority and in Israel and to bring them together in peace and prosperity. Campaigns which seek to rip apart the seams of our university along ethnic and religious lines do little, if anything, to improve the lives of Palestinians. One just has to look at the hundreds of Palestinian jobs lost after the BDS campaign forced the closure of the Soda Stream factory in the West Bank to see this. How would the boycott even work, if passed? The PSF say that it is simply against Israeli universities and not academics. How is this possible? What about anti-Zionist academics? What about Israeli Arab academics? Are we going to start interrogating academics on their politics to see if it fits what the self-appointed commissars see fit? What about American, Chinese, British, Turkish, Australian, Canadian, and other South African universities who engage with Israeli universities - are they going to be boycotted too? Are they not also enabling whatever it is the PSF accuses Israeli universities of doing? Whether the university likes it or not, this boycott will end up solely isolating and excluding Jewish academics. We do not have to look too far back into our history to see the devastating and horrific consequences of such actions.

Meaningless moral grandstanding and self-indulgent motions incapable of implementation do nothing to help Palestinians, and certainly do nothing to change the reality of countless South Africans struggling to survive on less than R10 a day right. If anything, it sows more hatred, discourages dialogue, and enables extremism on both ends. Instead, why are we not campaigning for more scholarships for Palestinian students? Why aren’t we creating programs that bring Arabs and Jews together? Why aren’t we running exchanges with Palestinian and Israeli universities and engaging with parties whose very lives are affected by this?

Israeli academia has a lot to share with South Africa. It is the centre of academic freedom, social justice movements, and free speech in a region where all these values that we take for granted are severely restricted. It is also a source of incredible innovation and technology and has inspired thousands of young entrepreneurs, giving it the reputation of a Start-Up nation. From the USB to micro-robotic surgical systems to an invention which provides clean drinking water to villages by extracting water from the atmosphere, Israel is a hub of ingenuity and social development. To think that only 70 years ago, all Israel had were a few oranges and cherry tomatoes to trade. Israel is not keeping its pathway to success a secret either – there are hundreds of programs for African nations and scholarships for South Africans to come to Israeli universities and learn how to bring this innovation back home.

We don’t want to keep protesting this boycott. What we seek is to continue building our nation and uplifting its communities. Having been part of the UCT South African Union of Jewish Students for several years now, I can testify at first-hand to how we have fundraised scholarships for the underprivileged, brought in free self-defence workshops for women on campus, organised sanitary drives for township women and assisted in fun days for the physically and mentally disabled. This is what drives us. We actively seek new opportunities to share our talents and to give back to our country, particularly to students. We have incredible networks and programs ranging through many different societies on campus aimed at realising the potential of our country’s youth.

The real question is, how much do those at the heart of the boycott campaign really care for the interests of their fellow students? If we follow their course of action, what opportunities will be denied to our students? As President Ramaphosa said recently, South Africa can learn a lot from Israeli tech. In the crisis that we are facing, we should be looking to seize opportunities rather than shutting them down. The decision is simple: either we shrug off our moral responsibility to our country by once again diverting our energies and resources towards an ideological vendetta against another country or we take real action to improve the lives of our own students, in our own back yard. The choice is ours.

Catherine Heron is Political Officer of South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) Western Cape