Author: AUFTAU

Nov. 20, 2023

Dear staff and faculty members, students, alumni and friends of TAU,

Time passes, yet our grief over the calamity of October 7 refuses to fade. Every day we learn more about the atrocities committed by the Hamas murderers and about the bravery of women and men who risked their lives to save others. The events of that cursed Shabbat remain excruciatingly real. To these we add the pain over the loss of our finest sons and daughters in the ongoing war, intermingled with the tormenting worry about those who have been kidnapped.  Sometimes it seems that our hearts simply cannot contain so much sorrow and pain.

But as the war goes on, we have no choice but to adapt our daily lives to a “wartime routine,” and, perhaps even more important, to prepare for the future. This is our reality here in Israel and Tel Aviv University is no exception. About a week ago a report on volunteering on campus was sent out to the TAU community. For details please see the TAU website. If you have not volunteered so far, please consider options here. We recently adopted a school from Kiryat Shmona in the north, with hundreds of students, and they are now studying on our campus. We are also assisting Sapir College which, since it is located near the border with Gaza, suffered enormous losses in the massacre. We adopted preschools, invited evacuees to reside in our dormitories, and much more.

In this letter I would like to list some of the challenges awaiting us in the near and more distant future. Most are shared by all academic institutions in Israel, and some are broad national challenges in which academia has a stake.

Reservists. We have a profound obligation to support thousands of TAU students now serving in the IDF reserves. We have raised donations to help them now, in this difficult hour, and also when they return and resume their studies. For details please click here. The university, under the leadership of the Rector and Deans, is also getting ready to provide them with any needed academic assistance once the academic year begins. We call upon our faculty members to contribute to this effort by volunteering to teach beyond their regular hours. The Rector and I, together with many other faculty members, have already announced that we will do so.

Relations between Jews and Arabs. A major concern as we prepare for resuming studies is the tension between Jews and Arabs on campus. Needless to say, Arab Israelis had nothing to do with the horrors of October 7 – no more than any other Israeli citizen. But despite this obvious truth, a number of opportunists are using the situation to spread venom and hatred against Arabs. Speaking with faculty members and students from both sectors, I found that some of the Jews fear Arabs, while some of the Arabs fear Jews. Some Arabs told me that they avoid using public transportation and speaking Arabic in public, for fear of being harassed or even attacked. Such a destabilization of the already delicate relations between Jews and Arabs is not only an injustice to all citizens of Israel, but a real strategic threat to our future. The Israeli government must assume responsibility for this problem and rebuild trust among all citizens.

As we prepare to resume studies on campus, we must make the necessary plans to ensure the personal safety of all members of the TAU community – Jews and Arabs, on campus and in the dormitories. TAU’s VP for Equity, Diversity and Community, the Dean of Students, and unit heads are working together to preempt any tensions that might erupt on campus. We will spare no effort to make sure that each and every member of our community feels safe at TAU. This is our common home, shared by all. The management and all members of the TAU community have a responsibility to keep it safe and peaceful.

This last matter also has to do with freedom of expression. Democracy is not suspended in wartime. If anything, its importance increases. Therefore, freedom of expression will continue to be upheld so long as it does not involve any imminent danger of violence or incitement. But beyond this basic rule, we need to maintain an unaggressive atmosphere on campus and to keep peace in our home; let us all refrain from saying or doing anything – even if supposedly permissible – that might exacerbate tensions.  At this time especially, let us be sensitive toward one another.

The independence of academic institutions. The independence of academia is the lifeblood of democracy.  But even now, as the war rages, we see attempts to undermine this independence, to supposedly “restore order” to the academic institutions. We, the Heads of Israeli Universities, are on our guard in this respect as well.

Budget. War is a costly affair and will probably lead to substantial cuts in the budgets of the government’s ministries. Funding for higher education might be reduced. In addition, we do not yet know how the war will affect donations to scholarships and research when many donors may prefer to support Israel’s most urgent, frontline needs. I call on both the government and our TAU supporters to understand that Israel’s universities are not a peacetime luxury but a key and central component of the country’s most critical foundations: the economy, technology, medical capabilities, security, education, and culture.

Threats to democracy. As we all remember, this war was preceded by a deep crisis in Israeli society. Right now, at least at first sight, the crisis seems to be over, and unity is the order of the day. We all hope that this unity is here to stay, but there is no guarantee. In fact, some occurrences are greatly disturbing in this respect. First, we have recently seen attempts to limit the public’s freedom of speech and right to protest. Second, violent acts perpetrated by Jewish extremists against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria are not treated with suitable firmness. Third, we see extensive efforts to hand out firearms to large segments of the population, under the pretext that this is a lesson learned from the events of October 7. It is doubtful whether the enormous risks of widespread possession of firearms by civilians (such as shooting accidents due to unprofessional handling, and criminals gaining access to guns) have been seriously considered. One especially troubling concern is that, after the war, these firearms might make legitimate political disputes or demonstrations especially volatile and dangerous.

It is our duty to alert the public to these threats, even if its attention is now naturally focused on other matters.

These are just some of the challenges that Israeli academia will face in the coming months and years. We will all do everything in our power to overcome them.

Let us all hope for better days, for the swift return of the children, women and men kidnapped by Hamas, for the healing of the wounded in body and spirit, and for the success and safety of our soldiers.

Yours,

Ariel Porat

November 1, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

We, the leaders of Israeli universities and research institutions, write to express deep concern over the discourse emanating from academia following the devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the inadequate response, in many cases, by academic leadership.

On that darkest of days, in a tragedy unprecedented in Israel’s 75-year history, the Hamas terrorists infiltrated into the country and murdered more than 1,400 people, including infants, children, students, and senior citizens —Jewish, Muslim, and Christian alike. The attack also included the abduction of 240 civilians of all ages into Gaza; additional missing persons have not yet been identified and accounted for. In the aftermath of these horrific events, we find it disturbing that certain narratives from academic institutions misrepresent the situation, or, in the worst cases, actively target Israelis and Jews.

We find ourselves facing a war on two fronts: one against the atrocities of Hamas, and another in the global arena of public opinion. Regrettably, we have noticed an alarming trend in which Israel, despite its right to self-defense, is mischaracterized as an oppressor. This is a false equivalence between the actions of a murderous terrorist organization and a sovereign state’s right to defend its citizens, which unfortunately results in the loss of innocent Palestinian lives. Any attempt to justify or equivocate Hamas’s brutal and grotesque actions is intellectually and morally indefensible.

It’s unsettling to note that many college campuses have become breeding grounds for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments, largely fueled by a naïve and biased understanding of the conflict. It is ironic that the very halls of enlightenment in America and Europe, ostensibly the bastions of intellectual and progressive thought that are your campuses, have adopted Hamas as the cause célèbre while Israel is demonized. Universities, as hubs of enlightenment and rational discourse, must take responsibility for the views they perpetuate.

There is no moral equivalency here. Let’s be clear: Hamas shares no values with any Western academic institution. Hamas is an organization that has repeatedly pledged to annihilate Israel and its people.

Its ideology is antithetical to the values of human life and the liberal values we hold dear. Hamas funnels international aid into armament rather than to the welfare of its citizens. While Israel uses its weapons to shield its citizens, Hamas uses its citizens as shields for its weapons—which it hides in hospitals, schools, and mosques. It is crucial to distinguish between Hamas’ terrorist objectives and the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for statehood. The conflation of the two only serves to fuel hatred and ignorance.

Academic institutions stand as lighthouses in the intellectual landscape, and we ask you to illuminate them. Your roles as leaders of these institutions confer upon you an extraordinary responsibility: to guide the moral and ethical development of your students, to imbue them with the ability to think critically and to discern the nuances that separate right from wrong. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of academic freedom, but it should not be manipulated to legitimize hate speech or to justify violence.

We urge you to delineate the boundaries between constructive discourse and destructive propaganda, and promote evidence-based, nuanced thinking that challenges simplistic narratives. Expose the falsity of justifications for acts of terror; expose and condemn disingenuous statements; and reject hypocritical voices that justify murder, rape, and destruction in the name of “resistance”.

Moreover, we expect that Israeli and Jewish students and faculty on university and college campuses will be accorded the same respect and protections as any other minority. The principles of inclusivity and campus safety must unequivocally extend to include Israeli and Jewish members of your academic communities. Just as it would be unthinkable for an academic institution to extend free speech protections to groups targeting other protected classes, so too should demonstrations that call for our destruction and glorify violence against Jews be explicitly prohibited and condemned.

What the world witnessed on October 7 were not methods to help disadvantaged peoples build better futures for themselves. The events of this terrible day should be taken as a wake-up call to all of the dangers of nihilistic organizations like Hamas and ISIS that represent the very opposite of freedom and liberty.

As leaders of Israeli universities, we have been heartened by clear statements of solidary and support for Israel, which are, at their heart, statements in solidary with humanity, enlightenment, and progress. At the same time, we are calling for a sea change in clarity and truth in academia on the matter of Israel’s war against Hamas, so that light will triumph over dark, now and always.

Signed,

Prof. Arie Zaban, President of Bar-Ilan University.

Chairperson of Association of University Heads – VERA

Prof. Daniel A. Chamovitz, President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Prof. Alon Chen, President of Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Asher Cohen, President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Prof. Leo Corry, President of the Open University of Israel

Prof. Ehud Grossman, President of Ariel University

Prof. Ariel Porat, President of Tel-Aviv University

Prof. Ron Robin, President of University of Haifa

Prof. Uri Sivan, President of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology