South African universities are facing mounting pressure to address their complicity in Israel’s apartheid regime, with Wits University at the centre of criticism. Political analyst Dr. Quraysha Sooliman has accused these institutions of propping up systems of settler colonialism, mirroring their historical role in South Africa’s own apartheid regime.
Despite claiming transformation, universities such as Wits are now being challenged for perpetuating colonial ideologies and suppressing student activism for Palestinian liberation.
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A progressive front masking apartheid collaboration
Wits University, long considered a progressive institution, is now being accused of doing little more than performing that progressiveness on paper.
“We’re not fooled anymore,” said Dr. Sooliman. “If you look at its actions and most specifically its inactions, they reveal a deep complicity in sustaining an apartheid structure.” She argued that while Wits and other historically white institutions posture as anti-racist and anti-genocide, their ongoing partnerships with Israeli academic and military-linked institutions betray those very values.
Collaborations with Technion and Hebrew University, both tied to Israel’s military-industrial complex, are among the partnerships Dr. Sooliman identified. “They have failed to divest from companies that are complicit in the Israeli occupation,” she said. “Their voice is absolutely… shut with regards to Israeli apartheid.”
These academic relationships, she explained, offer intellectual cover for violent systems and effectively render universities as instruments of legitimising apartheid once again.
Moreover, the internal structure of these institutions remains largely unchanged. “The bureaucratic and ideological structures still suppress dissent,” Dr. Sooliman said.
“Transformation has been incomplete.” By holding onto apartheid-era policies under the guise of post-apartheid branding, these universities are accused of enabling ongoing colonial hierarchies — this time on a global stage.
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Academic freedom or ideological suppression?
Student activism across campuses has become the frontline of resistance. Dr. Sooliman pointed out that universities have consistently cracked down on solidarity protests, whether during #FeesMustFall or Palestinian campaigns. “Their silence echoes their historical reluctance to fully confront apartheid then and now,” she said. And in the current crisis, that silence speaks volumes.
Wits’ neutrality is far from neutral. It takes visible stances on conflicts like Ukraine while suppressing discourse on Palestine. This inconsistency, according to Sooliman, “exposes how liberal neoliberal institutions selectively legitimise resistance.”
Inside the university walls, staff appointments have further intensified criticism. One case in point is the employment of a former Israeli Air Force officer within the architecture and planning department. Dr. Sooliman highlighted that this sends a “chilling message to Palestinians and anti-apartheid students,” adding that the Israeli military is responsible for bombing universities in Gaza and enforcing apartheid through checkpoints and home demolitions.
Meanwhile, Professor Karen Milner, national chair of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, holds a senior position at Wits. The SAJBD has actively lobbied against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and defended Israel at the ICJ, framing economic resistance as antisemitism. “Her dual role at Wits and the SAJBD represents a direct conflict of interest,” said Dr. Sooliman. “It undermines academic freedom because you’re institutionalising Zionist advocacy within the university.”
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Universities must choose a side
The broader implication is a disturbing reflection of South Africa’s past — universities legitimising apartheid once again, only this time not in Johannesburg or Pretoria, but in Gaza. “These institutions were all actively involved in repressing student activism,” Dr. Sooliman noted. “What they do is push this neoliberal agenda that weaponises the rhetoric of neutrality and objectivity to suppress Palestinian solidarity.”
She further explained that these universities endorse western narratives while silencing criticism of imperialist violence elsewhere. “They condemn groups as terrorists while they ignore or justify state violence everywhere,” she said. “And that comes back to your previous question about Stellenbosch, about UP, and all these previously white universities. They’re all still very much aligned with imperialist powers.”
The silence of South Africa’s academic elite is no longer being met with silence. Student activism continues to apply pressure, calling for accountability that mirrors the moral clarity once demanded during South Africa’s own liberation struggle. “I believe… all university activists across the country… should do exactly the same as what the activists at Wits are doing,” said Dr. Sooliman.
Image: GroundUp
