Open Letter to the Directors of Universities South Africa Board on Solidarity with Palestine & the UCT Court Case (5 Oct 2025)
On October 23, 2025, the Western Cape High Court will hear an application brought by Adam Mendelsohn against UCT Council members to review and have set aside the UCT Council resolution of June 22, 2024 in relation to the Gaza conflict. At the same time, a number of UCT donors have withdrawn funding as part of a campaign to pressurise UCT to withdraw the resolutions.
These actions represent an attempt to support Israel as it conducts a genocide of the people of Gaza, including destruction of the education and health systems, as well as pogroms against the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and unprovoked attacks on neighbouring states.
Israel’s actions have been condemned as illegal and inhumane by international legal bodies, governments, interfaith groups, civil society organisations and millions of ordinary people across the world. The International Association of Genocide Scholars has determined that Israel’s actions amount to genocide.
There has been a global outpouring of shock, grief, anger, and condemnation of Israel and its backers. All over the world solidarity movements, including many universities, have been expressing their support for Palestinians. Yet, only a few South African universities have issued what are relatively mild, isolated statements in support of Palestine. Others remain silent in the face of the message of implicit financial threat carried by developments at UCT. If we look to the USA, we see that this kind of timorous response opens the door to even greater ideological control by financial threat.
As a collective of UCT alumni, we believe that universities are public institutions whose activities and goals must be guided by principles of social justice. As South Africans, we remember how universities were subordinated to oppressive forces under apartheid, and we recognise parallels here. While the context, methods and actors are different, the goal of imposing ideological constraints that subvert the guiding principle of social justice is the same.
The UCT court case offers an opportunity for all South African Universities to stand in solidarity against this kind of interference with institutional autonomy and control.
We call on all USAF to
- Call for an end to the violent onslaught in, and occupation of, Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem,
- Issue a statement that unambiguously expresses the right of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to political and economic self-determination,
- Condemn the use of financial pressure to constrain the academic freedom of universities, such as that exerted at UCT,
- Call on member universities and other local and international academic bodies to do likewise,
- Communicate this call to the Minister of Higher Education and Training and the Cabinet.
- Coordinate a process of requesting each of the public universities to indicate how they can provide support to Palestinian academics and students in their herculean efforts to continue with teaching and learning.
Yousuf Gabru (Coordinator)
UCT Alumni for Palestine