Pressure from activists of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement has led organizers of an academic conference in South Africa to cancel invitations to Israeli participants.
Entitled “Recognition Reparation Reconciliation: The Light and Shadow of Historical Trauma” the conference is set to take place next week at Stellenbosch University.
In a letter calling on the organizers to disinvite the Israelis BDS activists cited the nation-state law many other egregious violations of basic human rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel and the draconian laws of Israel’s military administration in the West Bank and Gaza. The signatories to the letter included the South African Jews for a Free Palestine organization.
Seven academics from three Israeli universities – the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev – were supposed to attend.
