The Lebanese conflict has produced new hardships for Israel’s universities, such as the mobilization of faculty members and students, a curtailment of scientific research and new financial burdens resulting from cuts in the nation’s civilian budget, according to Gen. Shlomo Gazit, president of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva.
Gazit, the former head of Israeli intelligence, who is in the United States on behalf of the Israel Bond Organization, told a group of the American Associates of the university that the day the war began “we felt the impact in Beersheva. On the first day, most of our male students and faculty under 40 were mobilized, leaving behind mostly women and Arab students.”
Gazit said that Israeli institutions of higher learning face “an extremely difficult period in the coming months. “As one example, he cited new military regulations, extending by three months those serving in the military, and 60 to 70 days the new service requirement for the Reserves. “This will seriously affect the study program of many of our students,” he said.
He further mentioned reductions in the government’s civilian budget by three to five percent, which Gazit said for Ben Gurion University means a minimum loss of one million dollars for. 1982-83. In addition, he noted, the mobilization of some faculty members and graduate students will be a “set back” for the university’s advanced peacetime research projects in such fields as agriculture, engineering, energy and industrial technology.
UNIVERSITY’S EFFORTS HELP BUILD PEACE
Robert Arnow, president of the American Associates of Ben Gurion University, stressed that these scientific projects are helping to turn “the barren wilderness of the Negev into a productive and comfortable environment. Since the Negev represents Israel’s largest remaining unconquered frontier, our efforts constitute a vital part in the building of peace in this part of the world.”
Arnow reported that the university’s educational, cultural and research programs had already pioneered new solar energy advances, irrigation and agricultural technologies, that produce lush fruits and vegetables with salty water, drought resistant plants and food and fodder crops which flourish in arid soil.
In his presentation, Gazit said: “We have felt this war much more directly. Ben Gurion University has already had six casualties — six boys killed in action, three students and the rest the sons of our faculty and staff. We have many other young boys who are wounded in the hospital, most of them lightly, but some more difficult cases. This has very much affected everyone at the university.”
Gazit indicated that the university was setting up special machinery to personally work with and assist those now serving in the Israel Defense Force so that they could be prepared for makeup exams and classes that they have missed during their military service. He further stated that the university has developed a joint commission in cooperation with the military to find “flexibility” for those young people who have to serve additional time in the army, so that they can begin their academic year without too great a loss of time.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
