Illustrative image | Chairman of the board and president of the University of Cape Town Fund Trevor Norwitz. (Photos: Supplied | Gallo Images | Alexi J. Rosenfeld / Getty Images | Andrew Burton / Getty Images) 
The chairman of the board and president of the University of Cape Town Fund, Trevor Norwitz, resigned on Tuesday in protest over the university Council’s statement on the crisis in Gaza, in which it called for an immediate ceasefire.
“The Council statement, while varnished with a thin veneer of impartiality, reflects an institution which has lost its moral bearings, even its regard for the truth, which should be sacred to any institution of higher learning,” he said in a three-page response to the University of Cape Town (UCT) Council statement that was published five days earlier.
Norwitz has been on the board of the University of Cape Town Fund – the independent US alumni and fundraising arm of the institution – for more than 20 years.
The University of Cape Town Fund seeks donor support in the US for scholarships to UCT students, grants to UCT’s faculty and programmes, and endowment and capital projects on campus.
In his letter, Norwitz said that he had “often been berated by other alumni for championing an institution that they said had become so hopelessly biased against Israel and even anti-Semitic, that it was not worth supporting”, but that he had disagreed.
However, he said he could “no longer in good conscience be associated with UCT” and is “questioning whether it is worth remaining engaged at all”, following its 7 December statement on the crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War
The UCT Council, in its statement, called for:
- An immediate ceasefire, enforced by the United Nations;
- The immediate release of all civilian hostages and those Palestinians held without trial;
- Immediate humanitarian access to all parts of Gaza;
- An international investigation on war crimes by all parties engaged in this conflict, and consequent actions against the perpetrators;
- An international conference on seeking a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that seeks to enforce justice and security for Palestinians and Israelis; and
- Condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism.
“The murder of civilians is and must be condemned regardless of the perpetrators, and even a struggle for freedom must be waged within an ethical and moral framework. We thus condemn the disproportionate and deliberate attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians,” said the Council.
“The disproportionate and deliberate Israeli attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure in acts of collective punishment in Gaza has seen over 15,000 Palestinians killed in a period of under two months; 75% of whom are women and children, leading the head of Unicef to describe it as a war on children.
“The deliberate destruction of hospitals can only be seen as a war crime, as is blocking access to food, water and fuel as instruments of war. In the same period, nearly 250 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, with nearly 2,000 injured by Israeli occupation forces and settlers,” it continued.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Ramaphosa assures Jewish community Pretoria won’t sever ties with Israel, but condemns Gaza ‘genocide’
In his letter, Norwitz spits fire at UCT’s Council, accusing the body of “irresponsibly, even if unwittingly” being among those giving Hamas “support and encouragement, rather than insisting that they be held accountable for their heinous crimes”.
“Having offered its perfunctory condemnation of Hamas, the Council statement goes on to launch into what can best be described as a modern-day medieval-style blood libel…
“It goes without saying that I cannot continue to support or be associated with such an institution. This is my noisy resignation from the Chairmanship and the Board of the UCT Fund after over 20 years.
“I remain open to engaging with UCT if the good people there, including on the Council, see the folly of their statement and are willing to withdraw or revise it appropriately,” said Norwitz.
While the war in the Middle East continues to stir political tensions in the country, South African universities have, for the most part, avoided taking a public position on Israel’s continuing attack on Gaza.
Last month, nearly 300 members of Stellenbosch University – many of them senior academics – signed a letter condemning the attacks on civilians in the conflict.
On 20 November, the UCT Senate called for a ceasefire, and more than 70 members of the UCT Law Faculty called for accountability for the ongoing violence in Palestine, days earlier. (In his letter, Norwitz describes these statements as being “unhinged from reality or morality”.)
“Of all the universities that have made official statements on the war between Israel and Hamas, none I have seen has been as injudicious and tendentious as that put out by my own university,” he said.
In the US, the Israel-Palestine war has roiled university campuses.
Harvard University’s president, Claudine Gay, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) president, Sally Kornbluth, and the University of Pennsylvania’s president, Elizabeth Magill, came under heavy criticism from donors, politicians and some student bodies after appearing before a US House of Representatives committee last Tuesday to testify about anti-Semitism on college campuses.
The three university heads evaded questions of whether students who called for genocide of Jews should be punished, which led to calls for them to resign.
Only Magill, following mounting pressure from politicians, donors and alumni, resigned on Saturday, The New York Times reported. MIT issued a statement of support for Kornbluth and Harvard has thrown its weight behind Gay.
“As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” said the Harvard statement, signed by its board.
“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” it continued.
Israel’s continuing military assault on Gaza has killed more than 18,500 Palestinians, and wounded more than 50,000. A further 286 have been killed and 3,365 wounded in the occupied West Bank.
More than 1,140 people were killed and about 200 hostages were taken in Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October.
On Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, after the US last week vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have called for a ceasefire to end the conflict.
When contacted by Daily Maverick, Norwitz declined to comment further on the contents of his letter and his departure from the independent fundraising body.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola confirmed to Daily Maverick that the university had received correspondence from Norwitz.
“The UCT Fund is an independent non-profit organisation based in the US (and is among three such UCT international alumni structures of this nature outside the continent),” said Moholola.
“The correspondence was, according to Mr Norwitz, intended to alert the university leadership of an open letter he intended sharing publicly as his personal response to a statement issued recently by the UCT Council. In that draft open letter, Mr Norwitz makes reference to a decision to resign as Chair of the UCT Fund. This decision has not yet been communicated via a formal written notice directly to the university.
“UCT highly values the contribution by Mr Norwitz and remains open to a process of engagement with him, noting that even in such moments of having different views on issues, it is the interest of the institution that all parties concerned are committed to uphold. Like Mr Norwitz, UCT hopes this will not be the end of his almost lifelong relationship with the university,” he continued. DM
Update on 19 December, 2023, at 5.50pm: UCT, through its communication and marketing department, subsequently released a statement to address some of the specific claims made by Norwitz:
"One of the most alarming claims by Mr Norwitz, made without any substantiation, is that other alumni he had engaged with had referred to UCT as 'an institution that they said had become so hopelessly biased against Israel and even anti-Semitic…' This is a reckless and irresponsible claim to make, particularly without any shred of corroborating evidence or reference. In our statement of values, UCT commits itself to – among others – an institutional culture of inclusiveness, embodying respect for cultural, religious, linguistic, political, and other differences and acknowledgement of the value of diversity in society.
"Any claim to the contrary could, as far as UCT is concerned, be a result of the scourge of disinformation that has not only been witnessed across the globe in relation to the Gaza conflict but has also unfortunately found a way to the UCT campus. It is likely Mr Norwitz and some alumni base this claim on a few online reports by a particular Jewish publication, which has taken a biased stance when reporting on the matter, and which has attempted to spread an alarmist and exaggerated narrative around events on campus. UCT once again cautions any member of the university community and the public at large to be mindful that, living in an age of fake news, there should not be reliance on a single source and it is important to sift through and establish fact from fiction. There have been no official UCT activities, engagements, events, or statements that are indicative of any anti-semitism on campus.
"The university has spent hours in in-person, telephonic and written engagements with a number of stakeholders – including Mr Norwitz himself – to draw on evidence and dispel this incorrect perception that UCTis antisemitic.
"Mr Norwitz also claims that the Council statement is 'varnished with a thin veneer of impartiality'. It is ironic that one reading the statement from the gaze tainted by their own subjectivity based on their personal stance on the Middle East conflict would question the impartiality of the Council statement. That the Council statement does not say what one wants it to say in alignment with their own personal stance on a matter does not make it partial. The Council statement was a result of a formal Council meeting at which members present – drawn from diverse backgrounds, including the Jewish community, and each with their own personal views on the Middle East conflict – applied their minds and settled on a version that addressed issues on either side of the conflict in an as balanced as possible manner."
UCT remains as equally open to engaging with Mr Norwitz further on this matter. While Mr Norwitz is yet to send any formal written notice of his resignation, we reiterate that we hope that the informal correspondence received from him does not signal the end of his long relationship with the university.
UCT is a diverse community of individuals from different racial, religious, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, woven together into a strong community. UCT values each and every one of these members of our community and is committed to strengthening cohesiveness in our community. As much as moments of disagreement do and will arise from time to time, it is the interests of the university that must prevail at all times.
The academic environment provides a unique space to encourage critical thinking: through the exploration of diverse views and diverse ideas, reflection, and constructive debate. Given multiple and often competing stakeholders, differing perspectives pleasing everyone will not always be possible. Nor is it desirable.
As a leading African university and centre of learning, UCT, from time to time faces difficult or contradictory choices. But it is in times such as these when members of the diverse university community – be they students, academics, professional staff, alumni, donors or international partners – need to focus on what we have in common: a shared sense of purpose.
UCT has a pivotal role to play in creating an environment where our students, staff and other university stakeholders relate to each other on a human level, seeing the human faces behind current and historical events and political narratives. Navigating complexity, being alert to misinformation and avoiding a ‘winner takes all’ approach must find their way into any sensitive dialogue. "
Update on 29 December, 2023 at 11am: Norwitz has responsed to UCT's statement by saying it was a missed opportunity for "self-reflection and course-correction". You can read his full statement here: