Israel’s six most prestigious universities are fighting a limitation imposed by the military that would make them justify the acceptance of more than 70 Palestinian students as students. There is also a bar on these students taking certain courses. The restrictions raise core academic freedom — as well as raw discrimination — questions. Academics at Tel Aviv, Hebrew, Ben-Gurion and Haifa universities along with the Weizmann Institute and the Technion are launching a public campaign against the regulations. Israeli academics are concerned that the latest controversy could expand the current boycott of Israeli universities in the West.
In a letter, academics at the schools note that “Since its establishment, the State of Israel has carefully maintained a tradition of academic freedom… We expect the military to maintain this tradition and to limit its involvement to matters in its area of authority, meaning security evaluations only.”
Professor Tzvi Mazeh of Tel Aviv University has gone so far as to accuse the government of imposing restrictions reminiscent of the infamous German “numerus clausus.”
After the Supreme Court ordered the government to allow a West Bank woman, Sawsan Salameh, to study for her chemistry PhD at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, here, the military was supposed to reform the harsh regulations. Instead, it made them more harsh. Under the regulations, a Palestinian can only take PhD and MA slots if they can show “there is no practical alternative for the requested field of study other than Israel.”
The controversy is likely to further calls for a boycott of Israeli universities in the West, click here and here.
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Zak, I have read many of your responses. First, I would like to identify my background — like you, my ethnicity is from the Middle East. I am of Arab ethnicity whose parents were born in what was then Palestine. As such, I am no stranger to the conflicts of that region and my upbringing was pro-Palestinian.
As I grew up and was able to think for myself I can only be embarassed by the lack of ‘thinking’ that comes from the people of whom I originate. You talk about family members being murdered by Israelis. While I concede that Israel does not come to the table with clean hands (no country does), I can only look at what I see. I see Hamas using their women, children and infants as their human shields and then screaming murder. Instead of fighting like men, they hide in maternity wards and using their own infants to protect them. This shocks my sensibilities as a human being and I am repulsed that the group of people that I originate from commit such atrocities.
Lastly, I look at the current wars and wonder who started what? Can I honestly say that Israel would have initiated the lastest war had they not had to live with constant rockets fired upon them?
No, it is the Palestinians that are murderers. They target civilians, children, schools, hospitals — a tactic that the Israelis do not employ. Arab school children are safe from the Israelis, but are not safe from their own. Israeli school children are not safe from the Arabs but are safe from their own.
I answered five of your less ludicrous points, with no reply. I loved debating guys like you in University, it made my job that much easier.
Zak,
You don’t respond to all my points because you can’t. You’re still playing the McCain/Bush/Cheney game by ignoring salient points and clinging to propagandistic talking points. for instance you have no answer to the two points I made above. You have no answer because they are correct and you can’t admit their validity without the house of cards supporting your world view collapsing. As for Jimmy Carter I clearly did not call him anti-Jewish, nor would I. If you can’t support your positions honestly then I really have no desire to debate them with you.
MS; Sorry I can’t respond to all your propaganda, so I’ll respond to some of your opinions.
The vast majority of Americans and certainly most non-Zionists and non-Jews in the Government don’t care about Muslims or Jews, but they do care about oil. The US would carpet bomb every inch of Israel were the Jews ever to threaten that oil supply with nuclear radiation.
As Israel has already seen but fails to understand, when you take a persons land, home, livelihood, education, and even freedom, some will persevere, but almost all “suicide bombers” have had a family member murdered by Israel. So the more brutal Israel becomes, the stronger the backlash. I would ask you what you would do if someone expelled you from the home your family has lived in for generations, bulldozed your farm and only means of feeding your family, denied your children an education and then bombed your house and killed YOUR wife or children, but I don’t expect an answer or the truth.
If the Muslims are so bad, why do so many still live in Muslim majority countries like Iran? Because the media propaganda is just that and the Jews in those countries love it there in spite of your propaganda about being second class citizens. Saddam Hussein built Synagogues and Churches for Iraqi Jews and Christians. Israel has been crying about tearing down the Dome of the Rock Mosque for decades, which has stood there since 685 AD but even the most rabid Zionist Jew wouldn’t dare.
Many Muslims can’t stand the leader of their countries, mostly US backed Dictators that cater more to the will of the US than their own people – Mubarak, Musharif, the Shah…But whenever someone comes along that isn’t subservient to the US or God forbid, democratically elected – Mosedeq, Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Kaddafi…they use bombs, demands regime change or places sanctions to hurt the people.
And finally, I know you think you know more about governments and world politics than President Jimmy Carter, so read his book, ‘Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid’ and then write to him and straighten that anti-Semite out.