Friday, June 24, 2011

University of Haifa Bans Hatikva!

You better be sitting down for this one.

It seems that it is now prohibited to sing the Israeli national
anthem, Hatikva, at the University of Haifa.

At a recent graduation ceremony for law school students, the singing
of Hatikva was prohibited. Evidently the decision was that of the law
school dean, Prof. Niva Elkin-Koren. Her email is
elkiniva@law.haifa.ac.il. Hatikva was evidently banned because of
fears that singing it could offend the delicate sensitivities of
University of Haifa Arab students. Their sensitivities are already
under assault because there are Israeli flags at the University, and
because the University holds Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies and
Israeli Memorial Day ceremonies. I have seen with my own eyes Arab
students singing the PLO "national anthem" on campus and also waving
PLO and Hamas flags. The university has not banned that. The law
school at the University of Haifa is well known as a den of radical
leftists.

Maariv reports the story (in Hebrew, here:
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/253/445.html)

Ben Dror Yemini, depiuty editor at Maariv, denounced the University of
Haifa for this (in Hebrew at
http://www.nrg.co.il/Scripts/artPrint/artPrintNew.php?channel=1&channelName=channel_news&ts=14042008120049
) He described the decision as "academic hooliganism" and as
evidence of the suppression of real academic freedom by Israel's Arab
nationals and radical Jewish leftists. He denounced the University of
Haifa for running a pro-Arab "legal clinic" in collaboration with the
Arab anti-Israel NGO Adalah. To learn just what Adalah is, go to
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/adalah

Want to complain? Write to:

University of Haifa:
President of the University of Haifa
Prof. Aaron Ben-Ze'ev
University of Haifa
Mt Carmel, 31905 Haifa Israel
Tel: 972-4-8240101
Fax: 972-4-8240281
E-mail: abenzeev@univ.haifa.ac.il

Rector of the University of Haifa
Prof. David Faraggi
University of Haifa
Mt Carmel, 31905 Haifa Israel
Tel: 972-4-8288094
Fax: 972-4-8342101
Email: faraggi@stat.haifa.ac.il
Chairman of the Board of Governors
Mr. Leon Charney
Law Office of Leon H. Charney
Broadway 1441
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-819-0994
E-mail: charney@lhcharney.com
University "Friends of" Offices Outside Israel are listed here:
http://www.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/friends.htm

Here is what Micah Leshem, a fanatically anti-Israel professor of
psychology at the University of Haifa had to say about the banning of
Hatikva:

From: Micah Leshem <micah.leshem@psy.haifa.ac.il>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kudos to the Faculty of Law!

This is an important step toward being a True University dedicated to
universal values rather than sectarian ones.

Might I suggest the Universal Student's anthem be more appropriate and
less contentious than the religious one for our ethnically varied
Faculty and Graduates on this, one of the most significant events in
their lives?

We all look forward to the day when the other Faculties and Schools in
our University follow this commendable first step toward equality,
decency, tolerance, and mutual respect.

Micah






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