OP-ED: An academic boycott of Israel circumvents the dialogue that people in the region need By Tshediso Mangope
One of the stories I grew up hearing in the African National Congress and later at university is that Israel is an apartheid state and, therefore, all South Africans had a duty to stand in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine. In ANC circles such acts of solidarity are often occasioned by a suggestion that Israel does not have a claim to the Holy Land, that Palestinian people have a monopoly between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
By implication, victims of racism in South Africa are guilty of oppression when we seek justice. Jews who were dispossessed historically similarly also stand trial for claiming the same ancestral land that was taken from them. One cannot imagine the trauma that this causes to Jewish people who have never been accepted as human the world over except in the land of their forefathers, Israel.
South Africa was divided into two distinct worlds: One white and wealthy, the other black and poor. The mines, factories, and farms all depended on black workers forced into wage labour through government legislation. Blacks lived in townships and slums, and whites lived in comfortable suburbs. Blacks earned subsistence wages and whites were their masters.
In fact, if there is any strong case against Israel, continued relations between South African and Israeli universities is what we need for academics to influence academics on the other side. In fact, academic boycotts achieve one thing and one thing only, they circumvent the dialogue that the people locked in the conflict need in order to resolve the conflict and for the Palestinian self-determination to be obtained speedily.
Israeli universities and scholars are not responsible for whatever we may deem problematic with the Israeli government. Instead of boycotting their universities — the only space where they wield influence — we must strengthen relations so that they can contribute towards the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
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