Barred minister calls for freeze of Israeli university links

Haaretz 01 May 2015

South African Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande says he will call on all higher education institutions in his country to freeze their contacts with Israeli universities in response to Israel’s refusal to grant him an entry visa, writes Barak Ravid for Haaretz.

A senior official in Jerusalem said that the reason the minister's visa request was turned down was because he intended to pass through Ben Gurion International Airport for the purposes of visiting the Palestinian Authority, rather than visiting Israel.

Another reason, the official said, was Nzimande's radically anti-Israel stance. Nzimande was invited to Ramallah by his Palestinian counterpart to promote research collaboration between the University of Johannesburg and Palestinian institutions in Palestine. He was due to be there from 25-29 April.
Full report on the Haaretz site

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