The Student Representative Council’s (SRC) of five of South African universities have joined the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. This was announced at a joint press conference with Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS South Africa) at UNISA on Monday. The universities, UNISA, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Mangasutho University of Technology and the University of the Western Cape are following a mandate that was issued in 2011 by the South African Union of Students (SAUS) which urged “all SRCs, student groups and other youth structures to strategize and implement a boycott of Israel”.

“SAUS declared in August 2011 that all South African campuses must be Apartheid-Israel free zones and today those five universities have joined the ranks of Wits University and the University of Cape Town who in previous years have already joined the academic boycott of Israel,” said BDS spokesperson Kwara Kekana.

“We are hoping that the rest of the universities in South Africa will adopt a similar position, we are currently sitting on seven universities and we are hoping that this will have a ripple effect.”

The BDS resolution also comes in the wake of the boycott of Israel follows South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr Blade Nzimande’s who was denied a visa by Israel two weeks ago.

“Resolutions must be products of robust and intense discussions on campuses;” Kekana continued.

“The BDS campaign will expand greatly not only in South Africa but around the world. We hope that in a few years all campuses in South Africa will adopt this position.”

The SRC’s will be auditing their respective universities’ investment funds and service providers to ensure that companies that are in violation of the BDS call and complicit in the Israeli Occupation such as G4S Security, Caterpillar, Veolia, Alstom, Cape Gate etc. are excluded from investment funds and service contracts.

The resolutions in support of the BDS movement comes just less than a year after Israel killed more than 2000 Palestinians in Gaza of which over 500 of those killed were children. Israel also attacked several schools of the United Nations, over 200 Palestinian schools and a school for disabled children.

BDS and the SRC’s said they are against all forms of racism including anti-semitism and Zionism. However, conflating criticism of Israel’s colonial policies of Occupation and Apartheid can not and should not be equated with anti-Semitism. To do so is a disservice to the real victims of anti-Semitism, said the organisations.

“This tactic by the pro-Israeli lobby to falsely accuse those critical of Israel of being anti-Semitic is a standard practice which BDS and the SRC’s outright condemns. BDS and the SRC’s of the universities welcome the support provided by progressive Jewish organisations, comrades and counterparts for the BDS movement and the Palestinian struggle.” VOC (Umarah Hartley)