Johannesburg, South Africa – On May 13, 10 tents were set up on the pristine grounds of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Johannesburg. It was a pro-Palestinian camp that became known as the “Liberated Zone.”
The students, many of them wearing keffiyehs, occupied the grass next to the main library, normally used as a space to relax and eat, as a demarcated area for their act of protest and solidarity.
Their demands: a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israel.
In capitals around the world, South Africa has become a leading supporter of the Palestinian cause, calling for an end to Israel's war on Gaza and pressuring the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue harsh restrictions against Israel. But at home, South Africa's higher education institutions are grappling with some of the same debates and protests that have rocked university campuses in the United States and Europe, where governments have been criticized for their continued support for Israel.
South Africa's top universities have refused to reveal their links to Israeli organizations and institutions and have resisted calls from students for a complete academic boycott.
While Wits University has agreed to publicly condemn Israel's military invasion of Gaza and call for a ceasefire, it has rejected student protesters' demands to cut ties with Israel.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has yet to decide on calls to cut ties with institutions linked to Israel.
This comes as South African government officials called on universities not to be “neutral” in their stance on Palestine and to institute academic boycotts similar to those imposed globally against apartheid South Africa.
By the second day of the Wits student protest, the camp had expanded to more than 50 tents, each with a dedicated area for studying, sleeping and even an art area.
A few days later, a week after the protest, university security officials arrived at the camp to evict the students. They removed Palestinian flags and posters with messages of solidarity and calls to end the “genocide in Gaza.” They also tore down posters expressing support for victims of other conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Raees Noorbhai, spokesperson for Wits' Palestinian Solidarity Committee, said the university responded poorly to students' demands that their links to Israeli universities and organizations be fully disclosed. “Wits has not adopted an academic boycott as a position. The resolution adopted in the Senate called for a ceasefire but did not go much further,” she stated.
Noorbhai, who is currently studying for a master's degree in astrophysics, added that the protesters were determined to pressure the university management to fully disclose its ties to Israel.
Spreading the word
In deciding to set up camps, the students were inspired by their peers at universities in the United States and elsewhere.
“We knew we had to do something in protest like other universities in the world. When we started talking about a camp, the plans started organically,” said Kouthar Hussain, a student from Johannesburg.
“The students were very welcoming. We realized that many students did not know what was happening in the world and when we told them what was happening, they came to support us,” Hussain said.
On the fourth day of the protest, students marched to a session of the Wits University Senate – an influential structure – to make their demands known.
One of these demands was fulfilled. History professor Noor Nieftagodien told Al Jazeera that the university management voted in favor of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “The Senate voted for an immediate end to the violence,” he said.
The Senate did not agree to the students' other demands, including disclosure of their ties to Israeli institutions and companies.
Wits management subsequently gave students an ultimatum to leave the camp or face possible academic exclusions; non-students would face trespassing charges.
“Wits management is happy to adopt words of support for Palestine, but continues to demonstrate by its actions that this is not the case,” a spokesperson representing Wits Liberated Zone students said in a statement on May 19. .
The protesters did not resist the security agents and left only a tent as a symbol of solidarity. They also left bloody dolls wrapped in white cloth around the university grounds as a symbol of the children murdered in Gaza.
Later that night, security cleared the lawn.
Wits University has not responded to a request for comment on its decision to dismantle the Liberated Zone camp.
A history of protest
Since the start of Israel's military offensive in Gaza last October, the Wits Palestinian Solidarity Committee has held protests and solidarity demonstrations on campus.
Students have been demanding that the management fully disclose the university's relationships with universities and companies aligned with Israel; adopt a public position of solidarity with Palestine; adopt a position of support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement; and end censorship and intimidation of pro-Palestinian activists and activities on campus.
Student activists believe a full academic boycott is the only way to get Wits University to fully support Palestine, Noorbhai explained.
He said the students were inspired by the effectiveness of the series of boycotts of South African academic institutions and academics initiated in the 1960s, at the request of the African National Congress (ANC), aimed at using international pressure to force the end of apartheid. from South Africa. system.
Student activists have been making similar demands in their public solidarity with Palestine for years.
In 2011, academics at the University of Johannesburg voted to end their 25-year relationship with Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, an occupied Palestinian city officially known as Be'er-Sheva in Israel.
But South African universities have generally resisted calls for a full-fledged academic boycott.
Strength in solidarity
Midway through the protest at Wits University, students from the University of Cape Town (UCT), Africa's top-ranked university, also set up a tent camp with Palestinian flags and banners.
Hundreds of students gathered to call for financial and academic boycotts of Israel due to the Gaza war and the occupation of Palestinian lands. They said they wanted their university management to fully disclose their financial and academic ties to Israel and Israeli universities.
“This camp is to provide solidarity with the people of Palestine who have been displaced by Israel's occupation. It is also to raise awareness among students,” said a spokesperson for the UCT4Palestine campaign.
Students placed a sign at the entrance to the university's Sarah Baartman Hall, named after a Khoikhoi woman who was sold into slavery and has long been a powerful symbolic figure in South Africa.
The poster listed the names of thousands of Palestinian children who have been killed in the current invasion of Gaza.
During the mass gatherings, students carried banners reading: “How many students must be killed before UCT does something?”
![Wits University protest [Courtesy of Zahra Carrim]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Wits-University-protest-courtesy-of-Zahra-Carrim-3-1716750282.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola told local media at the start of the camp that the university management supported the students' peaceful protests. “UCT has always defended the right of any member of the university community to engage in peaceful and lawful protests. “The executive has not been formally hired nor has he received any correspondence from the group.”
While the camp was disbanded due to health concerns (some students tested positive for COVID-19), activists said they were determined to ensure a full academic boycott.
Before the camp, in April, the UCT Senate had resolved to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and further resolved that: “No UCT academic may enter into or continue relations with any research group and/or network whose affiliations Author Sean with the Israeli [army] and/or the Israeli military establishment in general.”
The move came after students held regular protests on campus demanding action from the university management.
While the Senate called for a ceasefire, the university council, which oversees the Senate, has not yet called for a ceasefire.
Another prominent South African university, the University of Fort Hare, has taken a stronger stance than Wits University and UCT, pledging not to enter into any relationships with Israeli institutions.
“Universities cannot remain neutral”
South African politicians, however, are speaking more openly about the situation.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education Buti Manamela told Al Jazeera that South African universities cannot remain neutral regarding Palestine.
“We really want to see our universities and institutional organizations doing what most institutions did with apartheid: boycott it. We can’t mince words when it comes to that,” she said.
Manamela said the government had warned the university management not to call off protests in support of Palestine. “Universities have been destroyed and academics have been killed.” [in Gaza]. How dare we want to be neutral,” she said.
Speaking at a memorial conference on May 8 in honor of murdered Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor called on South African students to lead the way in solidarity with the Palestinians.
“Our higher education institutions have a special responsibility to lead by example and provide moral and political leadership, as they claim to play a key role in advancing critical citizenship,” he said. “Our institutions have done it in the battle against apartheid and it must be done again.”
Pandor later applauded the students for their efforts to support Palestine.
