Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
In the first she stoutly defends the “encampments” and forcible occupation of US university campuses as an admirable expression of academic freedom, and condemns the efforts of university authorities to protect their properties. For Swart, the rights of most students to obtain an education free from violent disruption are clearly less important than the rights of the vocal minority.
She similarly admires the Rhodes/Fees Must Fall violence and says the attempts by university authorities to regain control of their universities was a shocking oppression of freedom. Ironically, the university she is “visiting”, Wits, is generally considered to have dealt far more effectively with its protesters by calling the police, than the more liberal approach of UCT, whose exaggerated respect for the “rights” of the protesters has severely damaged the university.
In her earlier article Swart defended the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” as an innocent expression of academic freedom. Of course, in context and practice this call means the replacement of Israel by an Islamic state.
Barely three weeks later she recorded the contempt for democracy and the oppression of women by the poster boy of Islamic states, Iran. None of the Islamic states surrounding Israel permits the democratic or gender freedom that Swart and the rest of your readers enjoy.
Critics are put in jail or killed; women are forbidden the rights men have, including the right to an education; the courts are servile instruments of government; political opponents are jailed and silenced.
We wait in vain for Swart to criticise Qatar, the country that hosts Al Jazeera, as another example of oppression and lack of democratic freedom.
We are right to be concerned about Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian population, especially in the West Bank. Many reasonably feel the military response to the barbarism of Hamas is grossly excessive.
However, to let that disapproval lead to supporting a Muslim state to replace Israel, which is what Swart implicitly endorses with “from the river to the sea”, shows a lack of common sense and perspective.
Jonathan Schrire Kenilworth
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Lack of common sense
Two recent columns by your columnist Mia Swart, visiting professor at Wits Law School, may lead some of your readers to look forward to her “visit” ending, and her speedy return to her real job with Al Jazeera (“Few university administrators truly honour academic freedom”, May 15, and “Iran’s election spells dire future for women’s rights”, June 11).
In the first she stoutly defends the “encampments” and forcible occupation of US university campuses as an admirable expression of academic freedom, and condemns the efforts of university authorities to protect their properties. For Swart, the rights of most students to obtain an education free from violent disruption are clearly less important than the rights of the vocal minority.
She similarly admires the Rhodes/Fees Must Fall violence and says the attempts by university authorities to regain control of their universities was a shocking oppression of freedom. Ironically, the university she is “visiting”, Wits, is generally considered to have dealt far more effectively with its protesters by calling the police, than the more liberal approach of UCT, whose exaggerated respect for the “rights” of the protesters has severely damaged the university.
In her earlier article Swart defended the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” as an innocent expression of academic freedom. Of course, in context and practice this call means the replacement of Israel by an Islamic state.
Barely three weeks later she recorded the contempt for democracy and the oppression of women by the poster boy of Islamic states, Iran. None of the Islamic states surrounding Israel permits the democratic or gender freedom that Swart and the rest of your readers enjoy.
Critics are put in jail or killed; women are forbidden the rights men have, including the right to an education; the courts are servile instruments of government; political opponents are jailed and silenced.
We wait in vain for Swart to criticise Qatar, the country that hosts Al Jazeera, as another example of oppression and lack of democratic freedom.
We are right to be concerned about Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian population, especially in the West Bank. Many reasonably feel the military response to the barbarism of Hamas is grossly excessive.
However, to let that disapproval lead to supporting a Muslim state to replace Israel, which is what Swart implicitly endorses with “from the river to the sea”, shows a lack of common sense and perspective.
Jonathan Schrire
Kenilworth
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
LETTER: Zionist skulduggery facts
LETTER: Simple facts about Israel
LETTER: Act of slaughter in Rafah
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.