Gazan Students Write to the Vice Chancellor of Wits University

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE VICE-CHANCELLOR OF WITS UNIVERSITY

Dear Professor Loyiso Nongxa,

From under a hermetic siege, now entering its third annum, from the largest refugee camp in the world, from the Gaza Bantustan, we write to you as student representatives of all academic institutions in the Gaza Strip.

We are both distraught and disappointed by the discrimination and racial profiling of the students and staff members of Wits University as they peacefully protested against the presence of an Israeli war criminal on their campus.

The events at Wits University this past week are further proof that the official international community is indifferent towards the savage slaughtering of over 400 children in Gaza. It is because of obscenities such as this-inviting a man who promoted massacre into one's country and campus-that we have little faith that our governments will be vehicles of change or justice.

Rather we now turn to international civil society movements and organizations and call upon them to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against the last heinous Israeli attack in Gaza.

We hail the students and staff members of Wits who courageously said no to the mainstream's apparent eagerness to host a war criminal on your campus.

As our teachers, professors and beloved ones used to tell us, there was no negotiation with Apartheid South Africa. There was only one word: BOYCOTT. Israel was a sister state to the Apartheid regime before 1994. Yet, disappointingly, the Israeli flag still flails in the skies of Pretoria.

We will not list out the resume of the crimes against humanity accused war criminal Lieutenant Colonel David Benjamin has committed against our fellow brothers and sisters in the Strip as our friends of Wits PSC have courageously already done so. But, rather, we will ring a bell of a history never to be forgotten: Sharpeville 1960. After that slaughtering of brave South African peaceful protesters against racially discriminative impasse laws, every citizen in the world knew that South Africa was an Apartheid state, a regime based on racial segregation and discrimination, a shame to humanity.

So too is the 1948 Nakba. Our people were ethnically cleansed. They were terrorized. They were expelled from their homes. And it has never stopped. The massacres and slow motion genocide still goes on. The building of an Apartheid wall takes place as we write, as do the expansion of settlements, home demolitions, land expropriation, and cultural confiscation.

And the entire world saw Gaza 2009. Before our eyes Israeli forces and weaponry killed an estimated 1500 people, more than 400 of whom were children, and injured 5500 others.

It is time for citizens of the world to admit the sordid truth, to see the reality imposed on the native population of the land for what it is: Israel is even worse that Apartheid South Africa, as noticed by the likes of Ronnie Kasrils, Desmund Tutu, John Dugard and all the brave South African visiting Palestine. Its generals and leadership are war criminals. You called for a BDS campaign against apartheid South Africa, but you host an Israeli war criminal on your campus. We fail to understand.

In light of the letter from our friends at PSC-Wits, we demand an apology to all those harassed, discriminated against and intimidated on campus. We also demand an inquiry as to why such conduct was practiced against them.

And we ask the Vice-Chancellor’s office: would you ever welcome an Apartheid-era supporter on campus?

The answer to this will mark the response to accused war criminal Lieutenant Colonel David Benjamin’s presence on Wits University campus.

Palestinian Student's Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI)

Gaza,

Palestine

Webpage: www.pscabi.org

Email: pscabi@gmail.com