A trio of alumni of the University of Cape Town have raised concerns that Israeli participants in a conference at the university were required to swear that they had no affiliation to the Israel Defense Forces.
Mathilda Michele Joffe, Elisa Galgut and Yvonne Kramer wrote in commentary carried on Politicsweb that the organiser of the International Association for Media and History (IAMHIST) Conference, scheduled to begin on 30 June, had demanded these sworn statements before they were allowed to attend.
No similar requirement was extended to any other participants. This appears to violate IAMHIST’s own statement on diversity.
The issue was raised with various leading figures in IAMHIST, but they refused to take action.
The writers noted that other participants had questionable links: this includes a filmmaker with links to a Palestinian institution who had not been asked to denounce Hamas. “The glaring disparity, where Israeli scholars must effectively prove ideological ‘purity’ while others are given a free pass, raises serious questions about the integrity and impartiality of the conference’s organisers,” they wrote.
“Adding to the sense of hypocrisy is UCT’s broader academic posture,” they continued. “The same university that demands ideological disclaimers from Israelis for attending a local conference has allowed its own academics to engage in relations with Israeli scholars abroad without hesitation or penalty. This selective rigidity reveals a politically motivated double standard, not a principled stand on academic ethics.”
They concluded: “If IAMHIST’s leadership is unwilling to stand by its own values in moments of challenge, it must be asked: what does its commitment to inclusion truly mean?”
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