BY Mzi Velapi – this post was originally published on Elitsha
Event: The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) picketed outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre during the International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME) due to the presence of Israeli academics at the conference.
PSC’s Position:
- The PSC claims that the invited Israeli academics have “no record of opposing the historical and current colonial genocide of the Palestinian people.”
- They argue that the inclusion of these academics in the conference serves to “normalize apartheid Israel and its society’s genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Context : The PSC statement highlights that all universities in Palestine have been destroyed, and multiple schools have been attacked by Israel, which the United Nations has described as “scholasticide,” a systematic obliteration of education in Palestine.
Demands by PSC:
- Condemnation and Disinvitation: The PSC demands that the local organizing committee condemn the genocide of Palestinians, disinvite the Israeli academics, and remove Israeli institutional affiliations from the conference.
- Involvement of Palestinian Academics: They seek information on efforts made to involve Palestinian academics in the conference.
- Support for Gaza: They call for the recognition of Palestinian academics, the rebuilding of Gaza, and the reinstatement of microbiological services in the region.
- Boycott: The organisation has also called for Israel to be banned from sports tournaments and from the world football governing body (FIFA).
Statements by PSC Representatives:
- Usuf Chikte (PSC):
- “We want to speak to the local organisers to get an agreement with them that they oppose apartheid, they oppose the genocide.”
- “The second thing that we want is for the Israelis to be removed from the conference because Israel uses research and academia to normalise its racism, supremacism and genocide.”
- “The third thing that we want is for Palestinians to be recognised; we want to rebuild Gaza. We want those microbiological services to be re-installed. We want to re-train micro-biologists and other professionals as well and want this conference to assist with that.”
- Saadiq Molla (Chairperson of Healthworkers for Palestine South Africa):
- Mentioned that they had previously asked the conference organizers to disinvite the Israeli academics as part of the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, but were ignored.
