Prof. Eliezer Rafaeli, the president of the University of Haifa, believes that Israel must deal with the question of the Palestinians. Interviewed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the office of the American Friends of Haifa University, he stressed that whether or not one believes there is such a thing as a Palestinian people, “there are people who call themselves Palestinians.”
In order to cope with the problem, Rafaeli announced that Haifa University will hold on April 5 the first conference ever held anywhere in the world on the “Palestinian Problem.” He said not only will the political situation be discussed but all aspects of the problem–economic, sociological, psychological and geographic–will be included.
Rafaeli said leading experts have been invited, including those in the Arab world. “We hope they come,” he said. “If we as Zionists have assumed the responsibility to decide the future of the State of Israel,” Rafaeli said, “we also have the responsibility to discuss the Arab problem.”
UNIVERSITY IS UNIQUELY SUITED
Haifa University is uniquely suited for this discussion, he noted, since it has the largest number of Arab students of any Israeli university, about 700 of a student body of 6500. The university has an Arab-Jewish Center to help build bridges between Israeli Arabs and Jews and trains most of Israel’s Arab high school teachers. The university conducts lectures and other programs in the Arab villages of the Galilee, the area where most of the Israeli Arabs live.
Rafaeli said that there has been tension on the campus during the last year due to the activities at the United Nations and the civil strife in Lebanon, among other developments. He said Jews in Israel feel that they are more isolated than ever because of the UN General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism and there has been a growth in national feelings among Jews. There has also been a corresponding growth in national feelings among Arab students, he said.
But the 50-year-old Tel Aviv-born university president said the purpose of the university is not to solve the Arab-Jewish problem but to bring the two communities together. He said Arab and Jewish students study and live together and they argue the problems, sometimes getting emotional “We expect people to express opinions,” Rafaeli said. “This is what a university is for.”
Rafaeli said Haifa University did not have the same problem that Hebrew University in Jerusalem had where some Arab students refused to perform guard duty because they considered it a military action against their brethren. Rafaeli said that on the main campus of Haifa University everyone performs guard duty, from the president to the teachers to the students.
He said in the dormitories, where more than 100 of the 850 occupants are Arabs, only four or five refused to do guard duty and were told to hire someone to do it for them or get out. He said guard duty was not a military action but the duty of someone to protect his home, which in this case is the dormitories.
Another difference, Rafaeli said, was contained in a letter to “Haaretz” from Dr. Butrus Abu Manneh, an Arab who is an Oxford University-trained professor of History at Haifa University. Dr. Abu Manneh said that people who want equal rights have equal responsibilities, such as guard duty. He said that the difference between the situation at Jerusalem and Haifa was that Arabs at Haifa University do have equal rights.
Haifa University this year also created a Chair in Zionist Studies held by Dr. Joseph Nedava head of its political science department and a one-time secretary to the late Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Rafaeli noted that the Chair was in the works for two years and was established coincidentally at the same time Zionism was under attack at the UN.
STUDENTS SHOULD SPEND YEAR IN ISRAEL
Rafaeli said he is in the United States to discuss Haifa University and to urge that more American Jewish students go to Israel to study. He noted that there are only 1500 Americans at Israel’s seven universities and said the schools could handle at least 10,000. Haifa University has 150 Americans and Rafaeli said it could take in 10 times that number.
Rafaeli noted that he found that there are more Jewish students studying in Belgium and Spain than in Israel. He said American Jews would find that their tuition and living costs would be much cheaper than in the U.S. and at the same time they would receive just as good an education. He said that by coming to Israel they would be helping the Jewish State, and the experience would be exciting. “It is good for every Jewish student to spend one year in Israel,” he observed.
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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.
