An Open Letter

Dear Mark "Barney" Greenway, Shane Embury, Danny Herrera, & Mitch Harris of Napalm Death

We are Palestinian students and youth based in Gaza, among 1.5 million in a tiny Strip of land the size of Britain’s Isle of white, surrounded and kept captive in a medieval siege by the Israeli Occupation Forces, the fourth most powerful army in the world.

Lining up in the forecourt of the retail store in Cape Town's up-market Kloof Street on Saturday, human rights activists called a boycott of the business outlet.

They held up placards and sang.

Shortly after the University of Johannesburg resuscitated an apartheid-era agreement with Ben Gurion University of Israel (BGU) in late 2009, colleagues at UJ who disagreed with this development sought an audience with an academic who was key to the envisioned joint water research project.

He responded by writing: "I am afraid I may not be helpful in this instance since I do not hold any particular view on the Israeli-Palestinian matter. My involvement is purely on a research basis as I am engaged in this project based on the expertise in water research at Ben Gurion University.

Former Israeli Foreign Affairs minister, Tzipi Livni, who was scheduled to be in South Africa this week, will not be coming to the country. While the SA Zionist Federation claims this is due to travel issues it is also as a result of the mounting pressure from human rights activists calling for her arrest.