The year’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is being marked globally, with a particular focus on student activism and campus protest.
The IAW, organized by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement, runs from March 21 to March 28. BDS describes it as a “grassroots solidarity mechanism to raise awareness about Israeli apartheid and to mobilize support for strategic BDS campaigns.”
This year’s theme is “IAW Back on Campuses Worldwide: Palestine Frees Us All,” 21 years after the first IAW event at the University of Toronto, Canada, in 2005.
Prominent events are taking place in countries such as Korea, Sweden, Italy, Brazil, and Japan, as well as inside Gaza.
On Tuesday, March 24, the Student Frameworks Secretariat held a conference at the Media Solidarity Centre in western Gaza City, and several seminars have been run by Birzeit University in Ramallah.
On March 27, protesters from over 20 cities in Europe are set to demand that Israel be removed from the Horizon Europe program, a seven-year European Union scientific research initiative to help develop a sustainable and livable society in Europe.
Israeli embassy flags IAW protest for antisemitism
Israel’s government has flagged some of the IAW events on March 27, specifically the protest in Brussels, which will take place 4 km. from the Israeli embassy. “This tradition of antisemitism deceives its audience with misinformation, violating the educational values of university campuses and leaving students isolated and intimidated,” wrote the Israeli embassy in Canada on X/Twitter.
“Don’t believe the lies,” it added.
Organizations such as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) fight back against IAW and dispute claims that Israel is an apartheid state.
CAMERA’s Apartheid Week Exposed website writes that “Apartheid was a horrific and brutal system of racism and segregation in South Africa, which created two separate, distinct societies: one of the free white minority and the other being the oppressed majority.”
It adds that “in Israel, all citizens are treated equally under the law” and that there are “no laws that prevent non-Jews from attending universities or serving in public or private sectors.”
Some Jewish groups have taken it a step further, organizing counterprotester weeks or events. The South African Union of Jewish Students is hosting an event called Identity, focused on Jewish pride and tradition, connection with Israel, and the connection of South African Jewry to both South Africa and Israel.