Education and cultural work as a crucial terrain in the struggle for Palestinian freedom

10 November 2023

We are a group of South African-based educators, artists, students and cultural workers committed to the struggle for Palestinian freedom.

As South Africans, we are painfully aware of our own apartheid history, and how schools and young school children were gunned down in the streets of Soweto, Atteridgeville, Langa, Gugulethu, and elsewhere. We are horrified at the images from Gaza, with F-16 jets bombing thousands of civilians to death, crushed in their schools, in churches, in mosques, and while fleeing to some form of safety.

In light of this horror, we wrote a letter of support for educators around the world who stand in solidarity with Palestine (https://bit.ly/palestine-solidarity-letter). To date, the letter has been signed by over 1400 people (https://bit.ly/palestine-solidarity-signatories). This number largely represents individuals affiliated to a broad range of both formal and nonformal education institutions, as well as independent practitioners from across the globe.

We wrote our letter in defence of educators who, since October 7, 2023, have taken principled positions against Israel’s apartheid project in Palestine, and its current genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza.

We note, with deep concern, that many people offering principled solidarity with Palestinians have been subject to intimidation, repression, and silencing through a number of means.

We recognise that Israel’s colonisation of Palestine is implemented through ethnic cleansing, illegal imprisonment, and forced displacement of Palestinian people from their land. In addition, we are witness to land theft, water grabs, and now a total blockade of water, food, medicines and fuel to the locked-in population of Gaza.

Crucially, these crimes are all underpinned and legitimised through a globally orchestrated project of propaganda. Israel uses broad-ranging formal and non-formal 'education' tactics to cover up these atrocities by painting itself as 'democratic', benevolent, charitable, and even politically progressive, in spite of overwhelming evidence of their decades-long violent occupation of Palestine. This misuse of education for propaganda is a crime in itself.

Misinformation is a central pillar of Israel’s settler colonial project.

As such, we argue for the defense of sites of education as crucial terrains for contesting this. Education has always been central in fights against all kinds of oppression, and as our letter states “should be the place to ask the most difficult questions, develop the most principled positions, and open alternatives when these appear to be foreclosed”. As individuals based in South Africa, we have a rich legacy in this regard. We call on education institutions and leadership everywhere to do all that they can to continue such admirable legacies of liberation and justice. We further call on our educational and cultural institutions to create spaces within their institutions where oppression and dehumanisation of all kinds can be challenged and confronted. Silence in the face of genocide means we are in support of genocide.

We stand committed to using our own spaces of influence to do this work. Collectively, we demand in our letter for “an end to apartheid Israel’s occupation, an end to the siege on Gaza, and the right of return for all Palestinians”.

Our painful but courageous legacy of educators and cultural workers slain by the apartheid regime include revolutionaries such as Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Dulcie September, Ruth First, and thousands more. We cannot stand by silently while the genocidal actions of Zionist Israel continues.

Issued by Thandi Gamedze on behalf of BDS SA, 10 November 2023