Ben Gurion University
Ben Gurion University - Parents Claim "We Won't Send Our
Children to Ben Gurion U"
Boycotts, incitement, subversion
against the state's foundations, silencing of students who are
afraid to say their opinions when lecturers and their assistants are
within earshot. That, you call pluralism!
We, too, will make use of our right to
freedom of speech. We will send this letter to the Minister of
Education and to the Chairman of the Knesset's Education Committee,
we will send this letter out in mass circulation and we will declare
that we will not send our children to an academic institute that
silences Zionist mouths, incites against the IDF, drips poison and
preaches destruction.
http://www.thejidf.org/2011/01/parents-we-wont-send-our-children-to.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141800
Parents: We Won't Send Our Children to
Ben Gurion U
by Gil Ronen
Published: 18/01/11
A public letter sent by parents of a
student at Ben Gurion University is making the rounds on the
Internet and causing a stir.
The letter was written by Dina and Boaz
Dromi of Alonei Abba, a secular agricultural community in the lower
Galilee, and addressed to Rivka Carmi, President of Ben Gurion
University.
Shalom and
blessings!
We wanted to
tell you that we live in northern Israel, in a quiet, beautiful
community, Alonei Abba in the Yizre'el Valley. We earn a respectable
living by the toil of our hands and we have four daughters aged 17
to 31. The first three daughters served in the IDF and the fourth
will follow in their footsteps once she completes her school
studies.
The first two
are college graduates and the third began her studies this year at
Ben Gurion University. We have two sons-in-law who serve in the
reserves, a tiny grandson and another one on the way. We are a
secular family that typifies much of the Israeli Jewish public.
Over the
years, we accompanied many students who studied at your institution
and the image we got was a positive one, in most cases. "A good
university, very social-minded and community-minded" - that was the
description we heard, and we liked to repeat it in the ears of
parents and students who were unsure where to study.
The first
crack in this image began to form when we heard that a lecturer of
yours, Dr. Neve Gordon, who receives his salary from the Israeli
taxpayer, called for an academic boycott against Israel's academe.
Sure, his "freedom of expression" allows him to defame and boycott,
but doesn't decency - his and yours - dictate that he cease to be
represented within an institute he wants boycotted?
This crack
became a large fissure when this lecturer, together with MK Taleb A-Sanaa,
called IDF soldiers "murderers"!
Your students
- our sons, our husbands - the ones who give you your strength; the
ones without whom no academic institution would exist here,
certainly not under an Israeli flag - are they murderers in your
eyes? Are you capable of entering a study hall in your university,
looking the students in their eyes and saying - 'yes, you reservist
soldiers are murderers'?
The truth is
that your silence on this matter appears to answer that question,
and to confirm our suspicion, that Ben Gurion University under your
leadership has, in fact, left the challenging trek of Zionism and -
what is worse - turned against it.
Taking all
this into consideration, it did not surprise us when we learned of
the two-day seminar you have been organizing at Ben Gurion
University. The seminar is centered around your support for the
Bedouin sector in the Negev and in advising Bedouins on how to take
over state land. Your famous pluralism was conveniently forgotten
when you decided not to allow the participation of an attorney from
the state, who wanted to take part in the event and make the state's
position known to the participants.
Boycotts,
incitement, subversion against the state's foundations, silencing of
students who are afraid to say their opinions when lecturers and
their assistants are within earshot. That, you call pluralism!
We, too, will
make use of our right to freedom of speech. We will send this letter
to the Minister of Education and to the Chairman of the Knesset's
Education Committee, we will send this letter out in mass
circulation and we will declare that we will not send our children
to an academic institute that silences Zionist mouths, incites
against the IDF, drips poison and preaches destruction.
In the name of
honesty, and because our money are tainted - in your opinion - with
the blood of innocents, it is only just that you should receive your
salaries from pure and innocent hands: the European Union, for
instance, or the Turkish government, or maybe even the president of
Iran.
Think about
it!
Dina and Boaz
Dromi
Alonei Aba
The Grassroots Zionist student movement
has been trying to draw the attention of the public - as well as
philanthropic donors - to Ben Gurion University's reputation as
a hotbed of ultra-leftist
sedition.
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