DUT students clarify anti-Jewish statements

THE Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Durban University of Technology (DUT) said it apologised without reservation to anyone offended by recent demands made by the council regarding Jewish students.

In a statement released late Thursday afternoon, the SRC said: “We would like to clarify that our position is, in fact, that Israel is an Apartheid, genocidal and terrorist state and that in solidarity with our Palestinian people who are currently oppressed and colonised by Israel we demand that any student Jewish, Muslim, Christian even atheist or any other that is funded by the apartheid state of Israel and its institutions must not be students in DUT, and if there are any, they must be immediately de-registered. Our campuses will not be breeding grounds for apartheid.”

The statement read that the SRC at DUT would like to communicate that it has adopted a full and complete cultural and academic boycott of Israel in line with the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel movement.

“We would like to also put it on record that the DUT management is being mischievous by focusing on this one issue when in fact we have recently submitted various other demands to it including the question of access to institutions of higher learning by disadvantaged working class students. As young people the DUT must not just point out our errors but must engage with the full bouquet of demands that have been put forward to it including the boycott against Israel as well as the academic exclusion issues raised recently. We are against all forms of racism including Zionism and anti-Semitism. Once more we repeat our position, Israel is an apartheid state that should be fully isolated; on this point we will not concede.”