Muslim Students’ Association
University of Pretoria
Lynwood Road
Pretoria
South Africa
0083
04 March
2015
Press Statement:
Israeli-Palestine Dialogue at the Univeristy of Pretoria
Earlier today the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) at the University
of Pretoria (Tuks) were invited to participate in a ‘dialogue’ pertaining to
the Israel-Palestine conflict, hosted by the Tuks Student Representative
Council (SRC) which will be taking place tomorrow (05 March 2015). We have
decided to decline this invitation on the following grounds:
1. We are not inclined to speak at an
event that is supposed to be a dialogue, yet bears a logo associated with the South African
Union of Jewish Students, a group inspired by travels to Israel and Occupied
Palestine: http://www.sajr.co.za/.../sa-student-leadership-visit-israel
2. This initiative, in the same week as
IAW, makes it difficult for activists to participate in the programme at such
short notice. We welcome the opportunity to engage but believe that a more
reasonable time frame should be allocated to invited speakers. We are willing
to participate in the next two weeks once IAW activities are concluded. We also
find it disturbing that we received minimal information and important aspects,
such as the identity of the chairperson and our opponents, werecc not provided
to us.
3. What concerns us is the
organisational bias involved? Is it just coincidental that the main organiser,
from the SRC, of this event (seemingly from this poster, and from the SAJR
report) is someone who has just returned from a Zionist sponsored trip to
'Israel, Ramallah and Bethlehem'? We wonder whether he had to wait at Qalandiya
checkpoint or pass through the cattle cage that Palestinians do?
4. The bottom line is that the occupation
is illegal, the settlements are illegal and Israel is in violation of
International Law. There are too many violations in fact to cite here, but this
might be of assistance: http://itisapartheid.org/Documents_pdf_etc/IsraelViolationsInternationalLaw.pdf
5. Is Israel an apartheid state?
This might help to answer your question from a South African perspective: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/media-briefs/democracy-goverance-and-service-delivery/report-israel-practicing-apartheid-in-palestinian-territories
and
HSRC (2009) “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of
Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under International law: http://electronicintifada.net/files/090608-hsrc.pdf
6.
Finally, as a reaffirmation of our willingness to engage, after the date of IAW
has passed, we will gladly engage in ‘dialogue’ with both factions of the panel
(Pro-Israel and Pro-Neutrality), and we will provide adequte notice of such an
intention.
We look forward to such an engagement in
the future.
Statement
issued by the Muslim Student’s Association (Tuks).
