Open letter to the UCT Council

Dear UCT Council

I have received your 7 December 2023 statement on the “Crisis in Gaza” (see below). In explaining the purported need for you to comment on this matter, you say that the university is “committed to providing thought leadership on social justice within a decolonial framework” and that you are “thus obligated to speak out on local and global issues, particularly where there are egregious violations of human rights”.

Given this, I wonder when we might expect your comments on, inter alia, the following local and global issues:

1. The pervasive corruption that is ravaging South Africa, to the detriment of all its citizens.
2. The now longstanding inability of the South African state to keep the electricity flowing, and both the causes and erosive consequences of this.
3. The South African state’s failure to provide basic personal and food security to the inhabitants of this country, with widespread hunger and malnutrition among its children.
4. The ongoing and unwarranted Russian assault on Ukraine.
5. The Iranian sponsorship of terrorism.
6. The conflict in Myanmar.
7. The insurgency in the Maghreb.
8. The threats to human rights from repressive regimes around the world. These include Russia and China, which are among South Africa’s BRICS partners, but also the dozens of other states that Freedom House rates as “unfree” (or only “partly free”).

There is, of course, a much longer list. The UCT Council may need to increase the number of its meetings.

Your statement about the “Crisis in Gaza” criticizes Israel’s military response to the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, as a “disproportionate and deliberate Israeli attack on civilians”. Given your self-appointed role of “providing thought leadership”, perhaps you could explain what criterion of proportionality you are using? Many experts – including Michael Walzer, David Enoch, Barak Medina, Peter Hacker, Shlomo Cohen, and others – have noted just how difficult it is to answer this question.

We would, no doubt, all benefit from the “thought leadership” of the UCT Council in unravelling and clarifying these complex issues. In the process, please do explain what a proportionate response from Israel would have been. Since you also describe Hamas’ attack as “disproportionate”, you imply that there could have been a proportionate attack. Perhaps you could also explain what that would have been, and how it would have met (or failed to meet) the other requirements of jus ad bellum and jus in bello.

Yours, in eager anticipation,

David Benatar

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Council statement on the crisis in Gaza

7^th December 2023

Dear members of the UCT campus community

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) vision statement commits to producing graduates who are engaged citizens and committed to social justice. We as a university have also committed to providing thought leadership on social justice within a decolonial framework.

We are thus obligated to speak out on local and global issues, particularly where there are egregious violations of human rights. Our own history of settler colonialism, apartheid and state violence places an even more onerous obligation on us as an institution and as a country to make our voices heard.

The murder of civilians is and must be condemned regardless of the perpetrators, and even a struggle for freedom must be waged within an ethical and moral framework. We thus condemn the disproportionate and deliberate attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians.

The disproportionate and deliberate Israeli attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure in acts of collective punishment in Gaza has seen over 15 000 Palestinians killed in a period of under two months, 75% of whom are women and children, leading the head of UNICEF to describe it as a war on children. The deliberate destruction of hospitals can only be seen as a war crime, as is blocking access to food, water, and fuel as instruments of war. In the same period nearly 250 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, with nearly 2 000 injured by Israeli occupation forces and settlers.

The UCT Council, committed to its values, calls for:

1. an immediate ceasefire, enforced by the United Nations
2. the immediate release of all civilian hostages and those Palestinians held without trial
3. immediate humanitarian access to all parts of Gaza
4. an international investigation on war crimes by all parties engaged in this conflict, and consequent actions against the perpetrators
5. an international conference on seeking a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that seeks to enforce justice and security for Palestinians and Israelis
6. condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and racism.

UCT will always seek to engender a tolerant and diverse university, which will remain a safe space for all students, staff and visitors regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or political persuasion.

The UCT Council

Issued by UCT, 7 December 2023