SOUTH AFRICAN student bodies endorse Israel boycott http://www.qodsna.com/NewsContent-id_39808.aspx

A number of South African organizations called last week for a boycott of an Israeli mission expected to visit South African campuses on Thursday, according to a statement issued by the organizations.National representatives of the South African Union of Students (SAUS), the South African Student Congress (SASCO) and the Young Communist League (YCL) slammed in a joint press conference held at the student center of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg the pending trip of 'Israeli Apartheid agents' to South Africa. Palestinian students have written their South African colleagues asking them to challenge and boycott the Israeli delegation.'We, students and youth of a post Apartheid South Africa, who bear the scars of a racist history and who continue to fight for complete liberation, have a duty and responsibility to stand in solidarity with those facing oppression worldwide. Israeli apartheid is one such form of oppression,” said a statement issued at the press conference.'Israeli media boast that a mission of 150 Israeli propagandists will be sent to universities in 5 countries to fix Israel's ‘serious image problems,’” it added. 'Don't patronize us! We lived apartheid, we suffered apartheid, we know what apartheid is, we recognize apartheid when we see it. And when we see Israel, we see a regime that practices apartheid. Israel's image needs no changing; its policies do!” said the statement.It called on Israeli students to instead join “the growing and inspiring internal resistance to their regime, particularly the boycott from within movement, rather than waste time and money on these propaganda trips to deceive us Black students, South Africans have no need for these Muldergate-like trips.” The statement said that a major focus of the Israeli trip will be the University of Johannesburg (UJ), whose Senate, with the full backing of UJ's Student Representative Council, terminated in April its institutional relationship with Israel's Ben-Gurion University. UJ had set an academic boycott of Israel precedent that all other South African and international universities can follow. 'Following UJ's decision, and in response to a letter sent to us by Palestinian students, we urge all SRCs, student groups and other youth structures to strategize and implement a boycott of Israel and its campaigns.

We declare that all SA campuses must be Apartheid-Israel free zones,” said the statement.'As with the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, international solidarity is key in overcoming Israeli Apartheid.In Nelson Mandela's words: 'It behoves all South Africans, erstwhile beneficiaries of generous international support, to stand up and be counted among those contributing actively to the cause of freedom and justice . . .we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,' ” said the statement.