Mohammed Kajee takes the Palestinian flagto Antarctica to make a political statement and raise awareness. [Picture: Mohammed Kajee]
When South African PhD student Mohammed Kajee set foot on Antarctica, 10 Palestinians met their maker after being attacked by Israeli authorities. Waking up to the mournful news was what prompted him to fly the Palestinian flag that day.
Speaking in an interview on Salaamedia, Kajee said he was convinced he needed to fly the flag – in one of the remotest edges of the world – when the deadly attacks took place. He said he was motivated by the need to spread the message of peace and to create awareness about Israeli aggression against Palestinians.
Kajee, a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT), focuses his research on the impacts of climate change in freshwater systems across South Africa. He said he always tried to find a way to include social justice causes in his field.
“Whilst I get to do what I’m really passionate about – working in nature and working to help create a world where we work towards protecting it – the idea of being able to help people is something that has been ingrained in me since I was a child. I try to find ways to incorporate that in the work that I do.”
He said taking the Palestinian flag, which had been gifted to him by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign group, was meant to convey awareness about the Palestinian cause.
“I was thinking about how [could] I use this platform to make a difference in the real world, where people are still facing the struggles they’re facing on a day-to-day basis.”
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Political statement
Kajee also stated it was a political statement that made him nervous, but he did it anyway. It was motivated by the impact yielded from activists flying the Ukrainian flag in the aftermath of the Russian invasion nearly one year ago.
“At a football event, if you fly the Palestinian flag you will face a fine for bringing politics into sport, but for the entire World Cup a lot of the countries had flown the Ukrainian flag as a show of support,” he said.
“That gave me the idea that a simple gesture such as taking a flag of a country or a people that are being oppressed is a show of solidarity and a political statement to show that we still care wherever we are.”
Kajee said he flew the flag near the South Pole despite the risks because he felt it was necessary for everyone to “be willing to take a stance against the oppression,” even if it meant “our lives and careers are inconvenienced slightly” because it was “worth the risk and the effort.”
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Awareness
While the world watched on, more than 50 Palestinians, many of them women and children, were killed by the brutal Israeli regime since the beginning of 2023. Israel had in recent months increased military raids, arrests and killings in the occupied West Bank, following a popular Palestinian uprising known as the “May outburst”.
Many people were unaware about the atrocities being perpetrated regularly against Palestinians, according to Kajee.
“There were lots of questions about what flag that was exactly,” said Kajee. “I think some people were just unaware about whose flag that was and why these South African guys were holding it up.”
He appreciated the conversations this had sparked in the far flung, icy part of the globe.
“There were some people that were just completely unaware of what the political dynamic is in Palestine and Israel and it was quite nice to have those conversations in as balanced a way as I could.”
Antarctica is governed by the Antarctic Treaty System, which includes over 50 countries as signatories. The Treaty was signed in 1959, designed to preserve the continent as a scientific preserve, promote international scientific cooperation, and prohibit military activities on the continent.
“This entire continent is run off the principles of peace, kindness and cooperation, yet the people of Palestine still can’t be recognised officially as an independent country.”
Julie Allie and Mohammed Kajee also spoke about using science as a tool for social justice. Watch the full discussion here.
