A Middle East Update, Christmas 2004

Dear Friends,

Here is an apt update for Christmas day: not a big story to hit world headlines, and yet instructive all the same. The Arab Students Union (AST) at the University of Haifa, which, like in all other Israeli universities, is not officially recognized by the university authorities as representing the Arab students, requested a Christmas tree to be placed at the main building of the University, in the same place where a huge Hanukkia was placed last week to mark the Jewish Hanukka. The University refused to put the tree in the main building, and authorized its placing in a remote building, where the office of the Dean of Students happens to be located. Unlike the main building, the centre of activity on campus, that remote building at the far end of the university is only frequented by a small fraction of the members of, or visitors to campus. The Arab students, Haaretz reports, appealed to court. The University spokesperson issued the following statement:

“Out of wish to respect the Christian students attending it, The University of Haifa allowed a Christmas tree to be placed at the Dean of Students’ office. Unfortunately, a militant group of Arab students has decided to kill the holiday’s joy and appealed to court, claiming that the Dean of Students’ office is not central enough.

Although Christian students constitute only 3% of the students attending campus, the University of Haifa which adheres to pluralism will go on pursuing this policy in spite of these attempts to politicize religious and cultural values.”

This press release made me immensely proud for belonging to a University so committed to pluralism! Imagine my frustration to have read some doubtful comments from colleagues, who fail to share my relentless confidence in the sound judgment of my university’s administration. Here are some of the messages sent from faculty members to the university inner circuit, regarding the matter:

1.
“Haaretz reports today that the University of Haifa turned down a request of Arab students to place a X-mass tree in the main building and agreed only to do that in the campus margins. Can anyone explain this decision? If Tony Blair can light a Hanukia in Downing street 10 and George bush at the White House, where the proportion of the Jewish community if far smaller than that of the Christian community at HU, why isn’t possible for our university to show more respect, dignity and tolerance?”
2.
“Attached the University’s response. Note the use of the ethnic designation, the religious demographics, in justification.”
3.
“Independently of what you think of this X-Mass ordeal, do not miss the response of the University (see attached) in order to admire the internal logic of this document. If there were Olympic Games for stuff like that, it could definitely qualify as a perfect “double flickflack backwards” in Logic.”
4.
“I fully agree with Eli and would like to add another voice in calling the University to change its previous decision. Personally I cannot understand why anoyne would find a celebration of another faith offensive in any way. Instead of enjoying and celebrating the diversity of our student and faculty body, we make the Christians on campus feel more isolated. Even if for some unclear reason there are people who are offended by the existence of a Christmas tree, it is a poor choice to always let these feelings (which I’m
sure are not that great in their magnitude) prevail.”
5.
“The message should therefore be: no religious or cultural group is marginal in our university. No distinction of location should be made between festive symbols of the various faiths and traditions. Why shouldn’t the university community celebrate wholeheartedly with every one of its cultural groups? Are we overdosed with festive events and opportunities for camaraderie and cross-cultural friendship? Imagine President Bush placing a Christmas tree in the West Wing lobby, and a hannukiya in the back of the Rose Garden…”

The university’s Dean of Students, however, backed up the university decision, suggesting it was all about the dubious insistence of the Arab Student Union to represent the Arab students of the university! What a nerve, indeed! Not only the University of Haifa didn’t recognize the Arab Student Union, but all Israeli universities, he rightly commented. To corroborate his argument, I have included below, for dessert, another piece from yesterday’s edition of Ha’aretz, involving the (strictly personal) opinion of a respectable member of the Hebrew University as expressed in court on a different issue.

I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate the holiday. No need to wish for better days this time, since. at least according to the official stand of my university, they are already here!
A. Oz

Professor Avraham Oz
Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature
University of Haifa
2105 Eshkol Tower, Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa, Israel
Office Tel +972-4-8240672 Office Fax +972-4-8249713
Home Telefax +972-3-5609627 Mobile +972-50-7220783
Email: avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il

Court erupts over expert’s testimony on `Arab mentality’
Haaretz 23 December 2004
By Yair Ettinger

The Haifa District Court was thrown into disarray yesterday during testimony given by an expert witness on behalf of the State Prosecution in a case involving the Islamic Movement. At the height of the uproar, Judge Micha Lindenstrauss ordered one of the five defendants, Dr. Suliman Agbariya, out the courtroom. In protest, the remaining defendants and their supporters left the courtroom, too, directing cries of “You’re a Nazi” at the state’s expert.

The Arab mentality is made of “a sense of being a victim,” “pathological anti-Semitism,” and “a tendency to live in a world of illusions,” said Prof. Rafi Israeli, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Hebrew University, on the witness stand yesterday, adding that the Arabs neglect sanitation in their communities. “Most of the Arab villages are dirtier, physically – it’s a fact,” he said.

Professor Israeli is the last of the prosecution’s witnesses in the case against five Islamic Movement members accused of security and financial offenses.

The defense initially requested that Israeli’s testimony be rejected, claiming the professor is identified with the extreme right – but his testimony was heard.

The professor’s entire testimony, which began last week and was completed yesterday, was accompanied by interjections and outbursts of emotion. Israeli was summoned to testify on an opinion he rendered at the request of the prosecution and according to which there exists an ideological similarity between the Islamic Movement under Sheikh Ra’ad Salah and the Islamic Brotherhood and Hamas. Like the Islamic Brotherhood and Hamas, Israeli believes, the Islamic Movement is a subversive organization that seeks the destruction of Israel.

During cross-examination yesterday, Israeli was asked to respond to questions on a number of issues concerning his viewpoint on the Arabs in Israel, Islam in general, and the sketch he offered of the nature of “the Arab mentality.”

The cross-examination, handled by attorneys Avigdor Feldman and Riad Anis, focused on the opinion Israeli wrote for the prosecution and, primarily, on quotes from a book he published in 2002 in which he describes Israel’s Arabs as a fifth column “that sucks on the udders of the country.”

Yesterday in the witness box, Israeli reiterated that the Arabs were “a burden on the state.”

During the course of the court hearing, Sheikh Ra’ad Salah likened Israeli’s opinions to those of the Nazis. Similar views, Salah said, “caused the people of Israel to fall in the Holocaust.”

Addressing Israeli, Salah said, “You are the danger; you are the worm of your people.”

The Islamic Movement and its defense team expressed shock and outrage at the choice of Israeli as a witness for the prosecution. “It’s a shame and a disgrace,” said attorney Feldman, noting he would be taking the matter up with the attorney general “to see if he stands behind this testimony.”