MEDIA RELEASE
SASCO condemns the participation of its members in Israeli propaganda trips
14 July 2015
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) has noted with great concern the attempts by the Zionist lobby to
wage a counter offensive to our ongoing solidarity campaigns with the
oppressed people of Palestine. We view the targeting of students and
members of SASCO in particular as a deliberate attack on our
organization in order to neutralize our rank and file membership on the
impeding question of Palestine.
We have noted that some of our
members and leaders have participated in what we have characterized as
Israel propaganda trips. The intension of this trip is to give an
unbalanced perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is an
attempt to reverse the gains SASCO has made to raise the consciousness
of our members and students in general. We have noted that the funders
of this trip are complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people.
SASCO has taken clear resolutions in the Boycott Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel up until the complete freedom of
Palestine. We have further resoled on the Academic boycotts and the
isolation of Israel. We view an act by some of our members to visit
Israel as crossing the picket line. We believe that our position on
Palestine is amongst the clearest position the organization holds as
part of its international solidarity work.
It is against this
background that the SASCO National Executive Committee has decided to temporarily suspend all our
members who participated in this propaganda trip to Israel pending
disciplinary hearing. We do so because we view this trip as having
tainted the name of our organization and put it into disrepute. These
members will be held before a SASCO National Disciplinary Committee and all
structures are thus instructed to suspend their already initiated
processes.
We wish to send a clear message to our members that
as an internationalist organization, we will never accept that in our
name our members contradict our standing positions. The oppression of
the people of Palestine by apartheid Israel is no different if not worse
than our own oppression. It would be an indictment on our part if we do
not take action.
Working with BDS and PYA components we have
appealed to these members not to participate in this trip. We went at
pains to explain and expose the real intention of these trips, however
these members decided not to listen. We even warned that disciplinary
action will be muted against those who defy the instruction not to
attend, yet these members and leaders ignored the organization.
Lastly we wish to state categorically that SASCO is a voluntary
organization where members join and subordinate themselves to its
constitution, its policies and its resolutions.
Therefore we urge all
our members to respect, defend and advance all decisions of the
organization without exception.
For more information:
Ntuthuko Makhombothi, President of SASCO
0718752209
Luzuko Buku, Secretary General of SASCO
0718793258
