Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad representatives speak at University of Cape Town

South African Zionist Federation spokesperson Rolene Marks said that the event was “shameless” and promoted extremism.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Representatives of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) addressed students at University of Cape Town (UCT) via video message during an “Israeli Apartheid Week 2023” event held on Monday by the Palestine Solidarity Forum (PSF).

Images of the event, as well as advertisements for it, were obtained by The Algemeiner. PIJ representative Nasser Abu Sharif and Hamas representative Khaled Qadomi, both of whom represent their organizations in Iran, gave remarks via video, according to a flyer for the event. The student group also displayed the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah in the room where the event took place.

University of Cape Town has been asked to comment on this story. It will be updated accordingly.

On Monday, the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) spokesperson Rolene Marks told The Algemeiner that the event was “shameless” and promoted extremism.

“Our universities should be places of rational debate and inclusive engagement, not hostile environments which encourage the dissemination of propaganda from extremist organizations such as Hamas,” Marks said. “Places of learning in South Africa must be clear on the dangers of incitement hosting speakers who would call for the discrimination, annihilation, and destruction of Jewish people, as a result of their race.”

Marks added that SAZF “condemns the PSF for encouraging the discriminatory, racist, and extremist political ideologies of Hamas and the oppressive regime of Iran on South African campuses” and called on the university to join it.

PSF has previously conducted anti-Zionist activity on campus. In 2019, it worked with the Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment–South African Coalition (SABDS) to cancel presentations by two Israeli professors at an academic conference co-hosted by the University of California-Berkeley and UCT.

In a statement posted on Twitter, PSF said it also sent UCT and the Berkeley Center an ultimatum calling for the professors to “clarify … their position on Palestine,” or otherwise for the conference to rescind the scholars’ invitations and invite Palestinian academics.

Past efforts to boycott ties to Israeli academics at the University of Cape Town have been strongly opposed. In November 2019, 68 percent of the 363 members of the UCT Senate voted down a resolution proposing that the school “not enter any formal relationships with Israeli academic institutions operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as well as other Israeli academic institutions enabling gross human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Two years prior, a petition calling on the school to “stand against” a boycott of Israel drew over 69,00 signatures, arguing that boycotts violate principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech.