Over 200 Stellenbosch University Staff and Academics Call on Institution to Condemn Israel’s Gaza Genocide

Cape Town (Quds News Network)- More than 200 academics and staff at Stellenbosch University have called on the institution to break its silence and call for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and sever any ties with Israeli universities.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, more than 200 signatories called for the university’s leadership “to officially and unequivocally add the university’s voice to this worldwide call,” according to Daily Maverick.

“The gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including the crime of genocide, being committed by Israel in its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip, raise profound questions about the responsibility of universities to condemn such acts and avoid collaborating with implicated Israeli institutions,” the statement read.

“Unlike several other South African universities, Stellenbosch University as an institution has been largely silent on this issue.”

“A Senate motion calling for an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of attacks on civilians in Gaza and Israel, the passage of humanitarian aid and the return of all captives was defeated on 30 April 2024. As concerned members of the university community, we again call upon our university to take a public stand on the violations of international law being committed against the Palestinian people,” read the statement.

According to the statement, the Stellenbosch University academics and administrative staff are calling for:
An immediate end to the genocide in Gaza;
Immediate relief aid, including food, medicine and fuel into Gaza;
An end to starvation as a strategy of war;
The establishment of humanitarian corridors so that the injured and sick may be safely evacuated and attended to; and
A lasting cessation of attacks against the Palestinian people.

Several South African universities, including the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape and Nelson Mandela University, have all made official statements calling for a ceasefire and immediate humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In April 2024, a special sitting of the Stellenbosch University Senate rejected a motion urging the institution to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, according to a GroundUp report.

The motion followed a statement signed by 103 Senate members calling for an end to Israel’s “brutal and barbaric” destruction of Gaza.

The signatories said they believed that Stellenbosch University had “a special moral responsibility” to break its silence on the issue, given its history of facilitating, colluding and collaborating with apartheid, and thus violating human rights”.

“As academics and concerned staff on the African continent, and part of a global society, we recognise that our responsibilities must extend into the cultivation of a public good, not for some, but for all people. “

“We also recognise our own positioning at Stellenbosch University, a context that continues to enjoy immense privilege, but which carries historical burdens. Our institution’s renewed commitment to transformation demands a heightened sensitivity to human suffering and indifference, not only in the context of South Africa, but also beyond,” the statement read.

Among the demands in the statement is the call for Stellenbosch University to “commit itself to suspending all collaboration with Israeli universities where there is a risk of direct or indirect involvement in human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.

Professor Sandy Liebenberg, the HF Oppenheimer chair in Human Rights Law at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Law, said several universities worldwide had done audits of their relationships with Israeli universities and severed ties with those complicit in human rights violations.

“We would like to see the management of the university putting out a statement at least distancing itself from and condemning the gross violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law that’s unfolding,” she said.

“But, perhaps more fundamentally, we would like to see some kind of audit committee set up to look at the contacts which might exist between Stellenbosch and implicated institutions – Israeli universities that might be complicit in human rights violations.”