ANCYL calls for UCT Israel boycott to be enforced

TALI FEINBERG

This is in spite of the University of Cape Town’s highest governing body, its council, on 30 March sending a motion to boycott Israeli universities back to its senate for further discussion.

  “An academic boycott is imperative to advance the cause to ensure isolation of what is clearly an apartheid government of Israel,” reads the ANCYL statement.

“Israeli apartheid must come to an end, and our democratic institutions cannot maintain the Israeli façade of a free society and, thereby, support colonialism… The cloak of academic freedom should not be used to shield Israeli institutions from facing the wrath of legitimate democratic and peace seeking societies,” it concluded.

Speaking to the SA Jewish Report, ANCYL Provincial Chairperson Muhammed Khalid Sayed said that it was imperative that the ANCYL comment on the matter because “the youth league has over the years been consistent in pushing for an academic boycott of Israel, especially in the settlement areas. It is tied in with our policy focus, and our student movement, SASCO [the South African Students Congress], has been pushing this line.”

However, he said the ANCYL did not automatically fall in line with anti-Israel groups like Boycott Divestment Sanctions South Africa (BDS-SA) or the Palestine Solidarity Forum (PSF). For example, it would consider the possibility of calling on universities not to boycott Israeli academics who question their government’s policies.

Sayed said he believed there was space for Zionist Jews on campus and in South Africa. “It’s a democratic country, and they have a right to express themselves. We can have contestation around those ideas, but we have never objected to there being Zionist students.”

To the South African Jewish community, he said, “We as ANCYL have a particular perspective of the Palestinian issue, which is historic. But we are not anti-Semitic and have no issue with the Jewish community. In fact, we appreciate the important role you played in our liberation, and the role you continue to play in uplifting communities. Even if we differ, we recognise the positive role that the Jewish community plays in this country.”

The statement also targeted UCT academic and council member Michael Cardo, who happens to also be a Minister of Parliament for the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Before the council meeting on the vote, Cardo tweeted, “The motion to boycott Israeli academic institutions is driven by a narrow, factional, BDS-supporting clique. It’s a violation of academic freedom. It will tarnish [UCT’s] reputation, and jeopardise funding. As a UCT council member, I will oppose it completely.”

The ANCYL said, “We strongly recommend that UCT asks Michael Cardo to recuse himself from the decision making process regarding the academic boycott against the state of Israel. It is distasteful in the highest degree that UCT has a member on its council who places narrow interests above the lives of the Palestinian people. Yet, when you juxtapose Michael Cardo’s neoliberal value system and track record of working to erase South Africa’s apartheid institutionalised socioeconomic injustices, it is not surprising that he does not denounce the inhumane and unjust practices of the state of Israel.”

Speaking to the SA Jewish Report, Cardo, who is not Jewish, said he had no intention of recusing himself from any future council discussions on the boycott motion. “This is all cheap politicking – part of the internal election campaign of the ANC in the Western Cape. There are members of the UCT council who publicly support the boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions campaign against Israel. I don’t see the ANCYL calling on them to recuse themselves. It’s a manifestation of the ANCYL’s hypocrisy and double standards, and I’m treating its grandstanding with the contempt it deserves.”

While Cardo dismisses the ANCYL’s comments, he is more worried about International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s comments at a South African Institute of International Affairs gathering last week. She was asked why the government allowed UCT, a partly government-funded institution, to have relations with Israeli universities.

She said the government would eventually deal with the matter of public institutions such as UCT and its relations with Israel.

“Any attempt by the government to interfere with academic freedom, by ‘pulling universities into the party line’ or telling them what political positions to adopt is ludicrous. I hope Higher Education Minister Naledi Pandor doesn’t share these sentiments. Threats to university autonomy sound a very loud alarm bell for me,” Cardo said.

Sayed said the statement attacked Cardo because, “He was the only council member who expressed himself before the council meeting on the matter. This is prejudice and pre-empting the discussion. His view is also inconsistent with South African policy on the matter. The DA is against the boycott and any form of downgrade, and we don’t agree with that approach.”

Emeritus Professor Milton Shain, who has written extensively about the boycott motion, said, “I think Michael Cardo is the target because he has been resolute on social media and in council. This is all part of the ANC’s desperate politics in the Western Cape. It seems the Youth League has nothing better to do while its party crumbles from within.”

Shaun Zagnoev, the chairperson of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, said, “There is nothing wrong with supporting Palestinian emancipation. However, the ANCYL is doing the Palestinians themselves no favours by adopting the obviously false, not to say absurd, position that Israel is completely responsible, and the Palestinians totally blameless for failure to date to achieve this.

“In order for the conflict to be resolved, both sides need to commit to a process of peaceful dialogue and negotiations, and far from being helpful, one-sided condemnations and boycotts simply hinder that process. We find it disturbing that the ANCYL chooses to vilify anyone who holds a view contrary to its own rather than allowing for the free flow of ideas.”

Rowan Polovin, the chairperson of the South African Zionist Federation Cape Council said, “We reject the ANC Western Cape’s cheap electioneering attempt to win votes by bashing Israel.”