UJ Sets Conditions for Link with Israeli University

MEDIA RELEASE

Wednesday, 29 September 2010

UJ sets conditions for link with Israeli university

The Senate of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has voted not to continue a long-standing relationship with Ben

Gurion University (BGU) in Israel in its present form and has set conditions for the relationship to continue.

The conditions are that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) governing the relationship between the two institutions be amended to include Palestinian universities chosen with the direct involvement of UJ. These universities are to be consulted on the terms of the amended MoU and UJ will consider their views.

Additionally, UJ will not engage in any activities with BGU that have direct or indirect military implications, this to be monitored by UJ’s Senate Academic Freedom Committee.

The UJ Senate also requests BGU to “respect UJ’s duty to take seriously allegations of behaviour on the part of

BGU’s stakeholders that is incompatible with UJ’s values” and calls on BGU to respond to reasonable requests from UJ seeking more information about “BGU’s formal policies and informal practices”.

Should the conditions imposed by UJ not be met within six months, the MoU between the two institutions will automatically lapse on 1 April 2011.

It will also lapse if there are any violations of UJ’s stated principles, which the Senate task team outlines as

“solidarity with any oppressed population” and that UJ’s engagement with BGU and other institutions in the region must “encourage reconciliation and the advancement of human dignity and human solidarity”.

The Senate vote still has to be ratified by the Council of the University, but BGU and its advocacy group in South

Africa will be notified of the task team’s findings and the Senate vote by Professor Ihron Rensburg, Vice-Chancellor of UJ. The Senate action is the result of findings by a task team established at a special meeting of the university Senate on 17 May where some members of the University’s highest academic body proposed to sever the current

Memorandum of Understanding between UJ and BGU because of alleged incompatibility between BGU’s practices and UJ’s central values.

After hearing representations, the Senate decided to form a task team that would put its mind to the issues raised and make a recommendation to the Senate on how to respond to the proposal to sever links with BGU.

The committee, which was headed by Professor Adam Habib, Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and

Advancement at UJ, was evenly divided between advocates for termination of links and those in favour of continued conditional engagement.

“The committee met five times with a view to finding a principled common ground on which a recommendation to

Senate could be advanced,” says Professor Habib. “In developing this recommendation we were mindful that our recommendation would need to be consistently applied in other similar contexts where UJ’s central values were not upheld and where human rights abuses were identified.”

Herman Esterhuizen Coordinator: Media Relations Division of Institutional Advancement University of Johannesburg Tel: +27 11 559-6653 Cell: + 27 72 129 0777 Email: [email protected]