PdOn 9 October, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee at the University of Pretoria (PSC-UP), a society committed to showing solidarity with the Palestinian people, published a letter directed to the UP Executive and larger community titled “The Inaction and Silence of the University of Pretoria on the Palestinian Issue and Gaza”. The letter describes how the PSC has engaged with university administration “repeatedly and extensively” for the past eighteen months to encourage them to “condemn the genocidal actions of the Israeli state” on behalf of the UP community, and to take “actionable steps” to divest, boycott, and cut ties with complicit institutions. However, the PSC’s endeavours have yielded little results. The letter further provides that throughout the eighteen months of engagement, the issue has been deliberately deferred by university administration multiple times, with the senate meeting of 28 May 2025 seemingly concretising that the University Executive’s inaction shall continue.
PSC-UP Transformation Officer Ayesha Essop said that the aforementioned engagements between PSC-UP and university administration began in September 2024 when an email was sent to the Department of Enrolment and Student Administration regarding a Career Services email promoting a social media marketing position from Revelator, an Israeli music company. In the email, the PSC had expressed concerns regarding the lack of vetting done by Career Services for ethical concerns, highlighting UP’s duty to maintain a high ethical standard for its partnerships and their responsibility to uphold ethical standards and values. The PSC ultimately requested that the Department of Enrolment send out a subsequent email acknowledging the initial email’s violation of the boycott and divestment and that, going forward, the Career Services Office will “employ better screening processes to prevent any further collaboration or affiliation with Israeli and Israeli-friendly companies and organisations”. In response, the Department of Enrolment said that they were unable to comply with the PSC’s requests as the official position of the University of Pretoria regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict is one of neutrality.
Engagements would continue in December 2024 during a meeting between UP’s staff and newly-inducted Vice Chancellor Prof. Francis Petersen in which the topic of Palestine was discussed. In conjunction with the UP staff meeting, the PSC had sent an email to Prof. Peterson, outlining what they would hope to see from him regarding student activism, Palestinian solidarity, and the protection of freedom of speech on campus. Essop notes that Prof. Peterson responded with praise for the PSC, emphasising the need for student activism on campus and encouraging the continuation of the PSC’s work. He later offered the PSC the opportunity to “have [their] voices heard” as part of the UP Task Team on Palestine, a team aimed at reworking a pending resolution on Palestine that would be taken to the University of Pretoria Senate in 2024.
The PSC took Prof. Peterson up on his offer, joining the task team in May 2025. Whilst being a part of the Task Team, the PSC had engaged with the UP Senate, contributing to the reworking of the aforementioned resolution. At the time this article was written, there has been no response from the Senate regarding the resolution. Despite the Vice Chancellor’s co-operation and encouragement, Essop is ultimately dissatisfied with the lack of progress due to institutional and administrative hold-ups, saying, “Every opportunity we have had to engage has amounted to nothing.”
Further discussion with Essop revealed some of the inspiration behind the PSC-UP’s work, their call to the University Executive, and the subsequent token letter. She highlighted that the work of various PSCs in other universities serves as an inspiration for the PSC-UP’s initiatives. Essop further explained that the PSC’s call for UP to issue a public statement and commit to action had been particularly encouraged by the actions of the University of Cape Town. She said, “Seeing that other universities, like UCT specifically, took a decision at a council level, which is the highest decision-making body in the entire university, in the face of opposition and legal challenge… I think that was the galvanizing moment for us.” She continued, “Seeing that [the] UCT council [was] willing to risk funding and legal battles to be on the right side of history, we [decided that we] have a duty as the PSC-UP and as students here at UP to call [the university] out and say ‘You have a duty to speak out’.”
When asked about the importance of tertiary institutions making public statements about issues such as that of Palestine, this is what Essop had to say: “We look to the fact that every single university in Gaza has been demolished. We see that Israel has continuously targeted Palestinian academics, Palestinian writers, Palestinian cultural workers, poets, etc. We know that the destruction of these academic and cultural institutions in Gaza and in Palestine is another attempt to destroy Palestinian life, and we believe that as a tertiary educational institution, all universities need to stand in solidarity with students and with academics in Palestine. Furthermore, when you look at student activism, historically, you see that when students are able to mobilise and organise themselves, we have the capacity to create so much change. We have the responsibility now, as students, to hold our institutions responsible when we witness this happening. I think it would be ignorant, [in] our own capacity as students, to not speak about Palestine and to not be in solidarity with Palestinians.”
In addition, Essop speaks about the contributions that academic institutions made in the past, which ultimately played a role in the fall of apartheid, saying: “We believe that UP has a responsibility to speak out and condemn Israeli institutions that are participating in academic apartheid and [the] general apartheid in [Palestine]… I think that’s a very important aspect to consider – [to] look at the international history and how UP has a duty to speak out and follow in that history considering that UP itself was silent [during] apartheid in South Africa.”
When approached with the critique that student structures such as the PSC may be considered too small to make a sizeable impact on the ongoing conflict, Essop highlighted the effects of student protesters holding encampments in tertiary institutions in the US, stating that they were “fundamental in pressuring those institutions to divest Israeli banks and Israeli bonds, which financially impacted the Israeli government.” She further mentioned the University of the Witwatersrand’s PSC’s “liberated zone”. Similar protests took place at the University of the Witwatersrand, which consequently put pressure on the institution’s SRC and leadership to “speak out” regarding Palestine.
Essop continued by saying: “Student organisations have a massive role to play in educating the youth, creating awareness, and building coalitions with societies and structures on campus that are not necessarily considered to be part of the Palestinian solidarity space. I think that our duty on campus is to create awareness, firstly, and secondly, to organise not only for Palestinian causes, but for student hunger, student homelessness, and [the] other [struggles] that students face.” Moreover, she said: “We are in solidarity with the Palestinian people [just] as we are in solidarity with the people of our own country. I think it’s also worth noting that these issues are all interconnected: the continuous struggle of many South Africans [regarding] poverty, health care, education, and the lasting effects of apartheid that we see in our own country. We are not trying to convince students to only care about Palestine. Students being involved with the PSC-UP allows [them] to recognise all of these interconnected ideas. We cannot expect solidarity from students without being in solidarity with students ourselves.” She ultimately highlights the role of student solidarity organisations, saying: “[We have to] link the struggles that we are facing here to what’s happening in Palestine, because they are linked. The same systems of oppression that are causing issues in Palestine are causing student hunger, student financial exclusion, and these issues on campus here in South Africa.”
Various UP students seemingly echo the PSC-UP Executive Committee’s sentiments. Amaan Docrat, a second-year LLB student, says, “It’s concerning that UP is silent. History demonstrates that collective action brings attention and can lead to change in human rights atrocities. I think it’s UP’s duty to follow suit and end its relations with Israel. [They need to] condemn their actions to add pressure to the genocidal state and strengthen the solidarity created by universities worldwide.” Mazviita Pasi, a second-year LLB student who joined the PSC earlier this year, shared, “I think it’s very important for UP to take a definitive stance because the struggle and daily challenges that are faced by Palestinians hinder their ability to access education. As an institution that primarily focuses on providing education to people, it is important for [UP] to distance themselves from an act that violates human rights and takes away the ability of students to access education. Aside from that, I think it sends a very positive message to students at the institution [about] what [the organisation] specifically stands for and against. I think it’s very important for [the university] to take a stance. In the event that [the university] does [have affiliations with Israeli institutions], I think it is very important for [them] to publicly state that [they are] distancing [themselves] from those institutions that are complicit in taking away the educational rights of Palestinians.”
Finally, when asked about the future of the PSC-UP, Essop concluded with the following: “We believe [that] we have the capacity to educate students and to continue to raise awareness [that] establishes networks of solidarity on campus. I think [that by] continuing to host lots of events, [exposing] people to Palestinian culture and history, and [providing] students with connections through which they can take action, we will continue to hold the university accountable. As long as the university continues to remain silent, we will continue to hold [them] accountable as far as we possibly can. If the solidarity we have on campus is able to grow, [we can apply consistent pressure to influence change]. We [will be] able to signal to the university administration that we will not remain silent alongside [them] and we will not remain complicit alongside [them].”
