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Keywords

Scholasticide; Epistemic violence; Academic boycott; Internationalisation; Decolonisation; Solidarity; Apartheid; Palestine

Special Issue

Special Issue Summer 2026

Abstract

This paper interrogates how racialized internationalization and epistemic injustice shape global higher education through a comparative critical analysis of South African and Palestinian academic resistance. Drawing on decolonial theory (Du Plessis, 2021) and Fricker’s (2007) framework of epistemic injustice, we examine how scholasticide—the deliberate destruction of Palestinian educational institutions—reveals higher education as a targeted site of racialized domination rather than a neutral casualty of war. Our findings show that normalization, sustained through Global South partnerships with Israeli institutions, functions as a racialized mode of internationalization that obscures complicity in settler-colonial violence. These dynamics are reinforced by transnational anti-Palestinian racism, a global structure of racialization that frames Palestinian resistance as illegitimate and censors pro-Palestinian voices in academia (Erakat, 2019; Said, 1993). In contrast, South–South solidarities rooted in anti-apartheid legacies reimagine internationalization as resistance and call for confronting epistemic complicity through decolonial ethics in higher-education policy and practice.

Abstract - Translated

البحث والتحليل كيف يُشكّل التدويل ذو الطابع العنصري والظلم المعرفي التعليم العالي العالمي، وذلك من خلال دراسة نقدية مقارنة للمقاومة الأكاديمية في جنوب أفريقيا وفلسطين. وبالاستناد إلى نظرية التحرر من الاستعمار (دو بليسيس، 2021) وإطار فريكر (2007) للظلم المعرفي، ندرس كيف يكشف "التدمير المتعمد للمؤسسات التعليمية الفلسطينية" عن التعليم العالي كموقع مستهدف للهيمنة العنصرية، وليس كضحية محايدة للحرب. تُظهر نتائجنا أن التطبيع، المدعوم من خلال شراكات دول الجنوب العالمي مع المؤسسات الإسرائيلية، يعمل كنمط عنصري للتدويل يُخفي التواطؤ في عنف الاستعمار الاستيطاني. وتتعزز هذه الديناميكيات بفعل العنصرية العابرة للحدود الوطنية ضد الفلسطينيين، وهي بنية عالمية للعنصرية تُصوّر المقاومة الفلسطينية على أنها غير شرعية وتُكمّم أفواه المؤيدة للفلسطينيين في الأوساط الأكاديمية (عرقات، 2019؛ سعيد، 1993). في المقابل، تعيد التضامنات بين بلدان الجنوب المتجذرة في إرث مناهضة الفصل العنصري تصور التدويل كمقاومة وتدعو إلى مواجهة التواطؤ المعرفي من خلال الأخلاقيات المناهضة للاستعمار في سياسة التعليم العالي وممارسته.

Abstract - Translated

Eli phepha ligocagoca indlela umanyano lwamazwe ngamazwe olunobuhlanga kunye nokungabikho kokusesikweni okubumbene ngayo imfundo ephakamileyo yehlabathi ngokuthelekisa uhlalutyo olubalulekileyo lokunganyangeki kwemfundo yaseMzantsi Afrika nePalestina. Ukuzoba kwithiyori yedecolonial (Du Plessis, 2021) kunye nesakhelo sikaFricker (2007) sokungabi nabulungisa kwe-epistemic, sivavanya indlela i-scholasticide, echazwa njengokutshatyalaliswa ngabom kwamaziko emfundo asePalestina, ityhila imfundo ephakamileyo njengendawo ekujoliswe kuyo yolawulo lobuhlanga kunokuba ixhoba elingathathi hlangothi lemfazwe. Iziphumo zethu zibonisa ukuba ukwenziwa kwesiqhelo, okuzinzisiweyo ngentsebenziswano yeGlobal South kunye namaziko akwa-Israel, kusebenza njengendlela yobuhlanga yokunxibelelana kwamanye amazwe efihla ukubandakanyeka kubundlobongela babahlali bamathanga. Ezi ntshukumo zomelezwa lucalucalulo olunxamnye nelizwe lasePalestina, ubume behlabathi bobuhlanga obudala ukuchaswa kwePalestine njengento engekho mthethweni kunye nokubeka amazwi e-pro-Palestine kwizifundiswa (Erakat, 2019; Uthe, 1993). Ngokwahlukileyo koko, umanyano lwaseMzantsi-South olusekelwe kwilifa elichasene nocalucalulo luphinda lucinge ngokutsha umanyano lwamazwe ngamazwe njengokuchasa nokumemelela ukujongana nokuthotyelwa kwe-epistemic ngemigaqo yokuziphatha ye-decolonial kumgaqo-nkqubo wemfundo ephakamileyo kunye nokusebenza.

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