LETTER: Students’ anti-Israel chant is hateful

Mia Swart treads on thin ground in her article, "(Few university administrators truly honour academic freedom, May 15).

She conflates the concepts of free speech and peaceful protest. I disagree with her. The phrase “river to the sea” in the context of the right of Israel to peaceful existence is distinctly hateful and destructive.

Actual students protesting against one’s own government on a military campaign that is achieving little other than the death of its citizens is very different from a minority group, not all students, of an aggressive faith, using campuses to disrupt the lives and studies of all other students, Christian, Jewish and Hindu, to support the evil and barbaric actions of a terrorist organisation.

The fact that these academic institutions of excellence are supported financially by people and organisations who represent these other religions presents an interesting conundrum. The three freedoms — association, speech and peaceful protest — are considered pillars of Western democracy. What Swart ignores is another freedom, the right for Israel to exist, something that will only occur when pro-Islamic forces drop their intentions to change the map of the region — and that is what “river to the sea” stands for.

C Richards
Craighall 

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