Isreali Apartheid Week (IAW) is a yearly series of events held on campuses around the world. This initiative aims to educate people regarding Tsreal as an apartheid system, building campaigns such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as part of a growing global movement.

Last year, Israeli Apartheid Week took place in more than 40 cities around the world. This year, the University of Pretoria (UP) also participated hosting a series of exhibitions, film screenings and seminars which took place last week.

A Palestine exhibition was set up in the Human Sciences Building (HSB) foyer for the entire week. Zaeem Ebrahim, Chairperson of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UP said that the week was organised by the SRC and the MSA working with BDS Working Group and teh Palestine Solidarity Committee from tghe University of Witwatersrand.

Prof. MME Schoeman, Head of the Department of Political Sciences, and members of the Sociology Department at UP were also involved.

Ebrahim said that the aim of the week was to 'outline the atrocities commited against Palestinian people in Isreal.' He claims that these actions resemble Apartheid South Africa.

On Tuesday 8 March, a seminar was held with Dr Stiaan van der Merwe and Heidi-Jane Eskanov, from the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), as speakers. The PSC of South Africa was founded in 1998 to promote the rights of Palestinians, from South Africa. It is a global initiative in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle - a struggle that they say in many ways resembles our own struggle against Apartheid.

On Thursday 10 March the Palestinian ambassador also came to talk at a seminar.

The week ended with a talk about 'The Role of Youth and Students in the Struggle of Apartheid.' Mr. Steve Faulkner, currently SAMWU's International and Equality Officer and long-time activist and trade unionist spoke, along with Mr. Ayongezwa Lungisa, SASCO's provincial chairperson..

IAW began at the University of Toronto in 2005. It drew criticism from its inception and continues to do so today. In 2005 it was condemned by a member of the Canadian government as a 'demonisation of Israeli and Jewish community.' It was also criticised by the ambassador of Israel to Canada who called it 'crude propogandism.'