A mere 16 Arab students were accepted this year to the medical school at Hebrew University, compared to 55 in 2005, a drop of 70 percent. The class usually numbers about 100 students.

The reason appears to be a change in the system of acceptance, which now includes appraisal of every candidate through interviews and role-playing.

Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al), himself a graduate of the medical school, says the new system is "culturally dependent" and therefore by definition unfair to Arab students and perhaps also ultra-Orthodox Jews and others "whose culture and values are different from those of the examiners."

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In a letter to the dean of the medical school, Tibi demands that the old system of acceptance, a function of matriculation grades and psychometric exams, be reinstituted.

The university spokesman told Haaretz, in response, the system had been changed to "improve the composition of the students who are accepted."

The new method, aside from matriculation and psychometric scores and personal assessments, includes a daylong session examining the candidate's biography and his or her ability to deal with simulated situations and moral dilemmas faced by physicians. The aim is "to accept students who not only excel in studies, but who also have the personal and psychological characteristics necessary for future doctors," said the spokesman. "In the past, the students with the most outstanding cognitive skills were accepted, but these are not necessarily what one wants from a doctor."

A similar system of acceptance was introduced at Tel Aviv University two years ago, and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, is switching to this system this year.

According to numbers Hebrew University has provided to Haaretz, 33 Arab students began studying there last year but this year the number dropped to eight. Some students sign up for more than one school and only then decide which one they want, so the final numbers at every school may be less than the number of applicants accepted.

Ahmed Abdel-Hadi from Jaljuliya started studying in Amman this year; his grade average should have had him accepted in Jerusalem but he failed in the new system.

"The questions are built for Jewish students. They asked about moral problems and how we solved them. Clearly a Jew who served in the army has something to say but we, high-school graduates, know nothing about moral dilemmas," he said in a telephone interview from Jordan.

In reply, the Hebrew University said Arab students failed the tests because they did not have sufficient emotional maturity at this stage of their lives. "It is clear that the main population to suffer from the new system is the younger applicants. They include students who are doing military service parallel to their studies and Arab students who start studying at a young age because they have not done military service," said the spokesman, adding that younger students were encouraged to reapply later.

Dr. Naomi Gafni of the National Institute for Testing and Evaluation, which drew up the tests, says the main problem is age. "At least two-thirds of the gap [between Jews and Arabs accepted] stems from age and lack of experience," she says. She said students who volunteer for Magen David Adom get extra points for their experience.

Mohammed Issa from Kfar Kassem started studying pharmacology but left after half a year and plans to go abroad if he doesn't get accepted here. His grades were sufficient for the Hebrew University but, he says, he was unable to express himself fluently in Hebrew and therefore failed the interview.

The various medical schools say maturity is the main criterion for acceptance under the new system. But experts in the teaching of medicine are surprised by the emphasis on age. One senior lecturer, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was superfluous to make an issue of age. "Maturity of this kind can develop during the seven years of training that every student undergoes," he said. "I can't understand why there is such an emphasis on this unless the aim is to prevent a certain group from entering."

The head of the Union of Arab Students in Israel, Fadi Abu Yunes, believes this is another attempt to filter out Arab students. After the number of Arab students went up in recent years in the social work, nursing and occupational therapy departments, he says, an age limit was set there, too (usually 20-21), and a personal interview.

Abu Yunes says there are Magen David Adom stations only in the big towns and there are no nursing institutions in the Arab sector because families care for their elderly and sick at home. From the social point of view, national service is also not acceptable. Therefore the Arab students do not get experience. "This is a political agenda that is being introduced via academia," he says.