South African universities join academic boycott of Israel

Student Representative Councils at five South African universities have released a joint statement acknowledging their support for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, Live Times reported on Monday. The statement was released in a press conference held in the Miriam Makeba Hall at the University of South Africa.

“This day will go down in history as we announce the resolutions adopted by our university Student Representative Councils (SRCs) to join the academic and cultural boycott of Israel,” the statement read. The SRCs said that they are also committed to the South African Union of Students pledge which was declared in August 2011 that all South African campuses must be apartheid-Israel free zones.

The Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution followed the call by the country’s Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande‘s for support for the academic boycott of “apartheid Israel”.

“We will be auditing universities’ investment funds and service providers,” said the SRCs, “to ensure that companies which violate the BDS call and are thus complicit in the Israeli occupation, such as G4S Security‚ Caterpillar‚ Veolia‚ Alstom and Cape Gate, etc., are excluded from investment funds and service contracts.”