Hebrew University
Hebrew University - Ariel Rubinstein (Dept of
Economics) joins call for boycott of Ariel College
'The use of academia to drive the
cogs of occupation demands an appropriate Zionist response. Ariel is
a college designed to advance a catastrophic goal that could lead to
the uprooting of the people of Israel – if not from its state and
from its land, then from its soul. Boycotting the college is the
necessary response.'
In favor of academic boycott
Recognition of
Ariel college as a university a purely political move
Ariel Rubinstein
Published 02.05.10
About two years ago, Yigal Cohen-Orgad, chancellor of the college
in Ariel, asked me to come and visit. Cohen-Orgad feels, correctly,
that we have similar views – for example, against the trend of
private colleges. Colleagues spoke in praise of Cohen-Orgad’s
performance as finance minister. And I’m always curious to peek into
what is happening in the territories. So I went.
In Ariel, I found an energetic person, an
experienced politician of the old Mapai type, a mover and shaker. I
remember him racing, armed with a lit pipe, among the science labs,
where giant signs on the doors warned that smoking was absolutely
prohibited. How jovial and good-natured of him to ignore these basic
safety instructions.
Since the short visit was aimed at convincing
me to support the college, I feel at liberty to share my conclusions
with the public: The college in Ariel is an educational institution
with good social intentions, which absorbs, for example, new
immigrants from Ethiopia. And it also has some good researchers. The
college makes great efforts to look like a “university,” but
primarily serves as a forward outpost in conquering the hills of
Samaria. A research university it is not!
The list of publications by the college’s faculty in fields that
I can assess is meager. The institution takes pride in the academic
journals published at the college. They sought to wow me, but the
journals struck me as amateurish. An academic conference at Ariel
was entitled “Studies of Judea and Samaria.” A typical scientific
lecture: “Was the ark of the covenant present at the battle of
Michmash?” Another lecture: “Post-partum depression and feelings
toward motherhood in Samaria.” Can it be assumed that researchers at
the academic center in Ariel have also studied depression among
Palestinian women who miscarried at checkpoints?
I came upon a funding request from the college
in Ariel for an environmental conference in Israel. The fund
providing the money asked the applicants to provide the names of
researchers who had explicitly committed to participate. Among the
names that Ariel declared as ready to participate in the conference
were two Palestinian researchers from… the Gaza Strip! Students and
lecturers are not permitted to leave Gaza, even to go overseas. The
Strip is closed and sealed for patients who are dying. Workers
attempting to infiltrate Israel from Gaza in search of work are shot
at the border fences. But the college in Ariel has connections with
the security establishment that enable it to make use of two
lecturers who, in their desperation to leave the Strip, have agreed
(perhaps) to adorn a conference organized by those who are making
the wilderness of Samaria bloom.
The Hebrew University in Jerusalem was also
established as a political symbol of the Jewish people’s return to
its land. However, unlike the college in Ariel, the Hebrew
University was from the outset a glorious academic forum, a research
university that combines the universal with the Hebrew. Ariel is a
large regional college. The recognition of the college as a
university was a purely political move.
I do not purport to be objective about the
college in Ariel. Nor was the review committee of the Council for
Higher Learning in Judea and Samaria in determining that the college
is worthy of an
academic upgrade. This committee included renowned people who
are devoted to science. There is also no doubt about the extreme
devotion to the settlement enterprise by some of the most eminent
members of the committee.
I admit my weakness. I also have a warm corner
of my heart for the people I met at Ariel. A captivating nostalgia
radiates from the settlement. But this sympathetic feeling must not
be allowed to confuse. The recognition of the college as a
university has nothing to do with its academic level. No one would
consider granting such recognition if the college were located in
Ramat Hasharon, Safed or Rahat. The planting of a “university” in
Samaria is merely another component in the government of Israel’s
bluff of a freeze policy.
The use of academia to drive the cogs of
occupation demands an appropriate Zionist response. Ariel is a
college designed to advance a catastrophic goal that could lead to
the uprooting of the people of Israel – if not from its state and
from its land, then from its soul. Boycotting the college is the
necessary response.
|
