No place in university dorms for Arabs who didn't serve in IDF
After influx of students from abroad, Tel Aviv university changed points system to grant more weight to military service records, Arab students say.
By Jack KhouryDozens of Arab students at Tel Aviv University were denied spots in college dormitories for the coming academic year, due to preference given to students with military records, students said a secretary in the dean's office told them.
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Taymur Mansur sitting outside student accommodation in Tel Aviv Wednesday. |
| Photo by: Tali Mayer |
There are fewer beds allocated for Israeli citizens this year because more overseas students, mainly from the United States, have registered for classes, the students said.
The dorms are normally divided about equally between Arab and Jewish students, with each group getting about 40 percent of the beds, and another 20 percent going to the overseas students. But because of the influx of students from abroad, the university changed the points system it uses to assign dorm rooms to students and is now granting more weight to military and national service records, the students said.
"We spoke to the dean's office and one of the secretaries clearly marked out the military or civil service slot on the dorms form, telling us these clauses significantly increase the point value," said Mohammed Awad, chairman of the Balad party's campus chapter.
Hundreds of Arab students at the university live in the north of the country, making it difficult for them to commute to class.
Tel Aviv University would not comment on the breakdown of the dorm allocation system. It said 600 beds are going to Israeli students, 300 to overseas students and 50 to new immigrants.
The university confirmed that there are fewer available spots in the dormitories this year, but said that was because of extensive repair work.
Balad chairman MK Jamal Zahalka has asked Yoav Ariel, the dean of students, to reexamine the application criteria. Zahalka said the criteria are unfair because Arab students are legally exempt from military and national service.
Taymur Mansur, a Druze student who is about to begin his second year studying for a degree in social work, said he got a dorm room last year but that the university rejected his residency request for the coming year.
Mansur did not serve in the army for religious reasons, and is convinced that is what's keeping him from university-provided housing.
Some students whose dormitory requests were rejected have appealed the decision and are expecting an answer in the coming weeks, while others have begun looking for an off-campus apartment to share with roommates. But not all the students can afford the additional cost of paying the rent, and said their failure to secure a dorm room may mean they have to quit school.
This isn't the first time the issue has come to national attention.
In 2006 the Haifa District Court ordered the University of Haifa to strike military or national service from its residency application form, citing discrimination against Arab students. The university appealed to the Supreme Court, but before it could rule on the case, the Knesset passed an amendment to a law providing financial benefits for veterans that explicitly granted veterans university housing benefits.
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One more example of the extreme racist atttude of Jews
lots of jews, especially jewish girls, avoid national service due to 'religious reasons', and these people also won't get this beneft, and they don't deserve to get it.
Being an IDF soldier is not just about building personal character but its about strengthening the foundation of the whole society, if this student then wants to increase her/his value by going to university, this is EXACTLY the kind of citizen Israel should want, military and university educated, they should get preferential treatment.
No one is legally obligated to do National Service. Anyone can volunteer. In fact a current goal is to get more Arabs involved in National Service. One can preform national service before or after military service or if you have not been called up to the military (the case for most Arabs) or you exempt yourself from the military (often by claiming to be a religious women or by other means). However it is all cases voluntary. Everybody is "legally exempt" from something voluntary, so I really see no reason to complain
Arabs should act like Israeli citizens and be equally treated which means they serve in the army or do national service if not like for any other Jew they should have less rights as they did not sacrifice even one minute for the state. When Arabs start realizing they live in Israel then they will have more rights for now earn your rights for heavens sake!!
Racism of Israel knows no bounds ,indeed
It is not so easy for Arab students to find room rentals in the city..(Israeli is struggling against discrimination..but it is still there) The time has come for all citizens to do National Service, in the defense forces or civilian service near their communities- hospitals, schools, etc so that we can free ourselves from needless division that, even if it is not racism, can breed it.
"It said 600 beds are going to Israeli students, 300 to overseas students and 50 to new immigrants." So, overseas students are allocated 50% of the total dorms? That's crazy! Overseas students already get a cheaper education than they can get in their own countries and guess who subsidieses that? Israeli taxpayers - Jewish & Arab citizens! Finally, the Arab student who doesn't serve in the IDF and "saves" 3 years that his Jewish fellow is "giving", also starts to work and pay taxes for 3 years that his Jewish fellow is "saving"! The service in the IDF opens doors that no Arab student can even dream of!
study for free or cheaper than you'd be otherwise. Hope you're not studying for any "serious" profession ,stick to sociolgy or Albania-studies.
If there are 950 beds in total (600 for Israelis, 300 for oversea students and 50 for new immigrants), that would make beds available for foreign students to be 28.5 percent. Are you sure you are a student?
your insane if you think overseas students pay less. In fact I'm paying almost double the regular TAU tuition. The only positive way to look at it is to hope that my paying excess helps TAU get more beds!
About time they got some sense! Those who laid their lives on the line to serve the country deserve priority - whether Jewish or Muslim or Chiristian or Druze.
If i am applying along with an ex-IDF soldier, I would not be shocked or offended if he got additional points on the admission scale because of that - this is logical.
I think you will find that arabs are allowed to join the army and some do, it is just that Muslim and Christian Arabs are not compelled to do so. Conscription does apply to other groups including the Druze
again, again, again, again .....
Formerly in South Africa and in the United States apartheid meant COMPLETE segregation between whites and not whites. In this case arab students were accepted from the beginning and continue to be registered in the Universities. So it is not apartheid.
Isn't that a sort of reverse Apartheid?
go for it.
I am certainly not encouraging discrimination against Arabs in Israel (and since Arabs can join the army it may be moot whether this is discrimination on racial grounds especially as I assume it would equally apply to orthodox Jews who do not serve), but the legislation in issue in the UK is directed at discrimination in the UK not outside the UK. I am not aware of any threats of action in the US, the threats of litigation were, as far as I am aware, in the UK.
Our values, which are supposed to be the wealth of everyone, poor and rich, went down the drain: compassion and decency are almost nowhere to be found, violence is spreading as a flood throughout the country, racism contaminates everything and everyone all over, High Court rules are either despised or by-passed, and the Knesset, instead of acting for the benefit of the whole population, works hard to find expedients aimed at making sure that our Arab co citizens will get even less of the common good, freedom and opportunities included. On top of all that we have become deaf and blind too. Maybe oddly, but it reminds me of the Roman Empire immediately before it disintegrated...
Do us all a favour and contribute something constructive to the discussion. That can't be too hard for a cool and reserved Max-von-Sydow-type like yourself, now can it?
Why do Jews make it even harder to fight to stay alive? Jews need to be consistant with the message that as long as the Palestinians and their Arab brothers are not ready for an end the conflict resolution that will stand the test of time, that things will be unequal. The Jewish liberals who place democracy above everthing else, only push peace further away.
don't you call not having to pay taxes, work or join the army extra rights?!!? If the religious get any more power Israeli women will all have to hide behind burkas!
Why should wealthy students from abroad take precedence? The most needy should get preference, with the most gifted among them at the top of the list. That's what happens in normal, democratic countries.
To allow IDF veterans (most Israelis) a fair chance to compete, no Israeli should be admitted to college until they have completed IDF service or alternate national service, or even an acceptable 3 year period of vocational or religious training. Arabs and Haredi who don't serve should not be given an unfair advantage in university admission or housing. Requuire minimum age of 21 to be admitted to public universities.
So Jews will get paid, Haredi will get benefits and Arabs will eat shit for 3 years. Tad ethnocentic that proposal, don't you agree? Or was this whole point of the exercise?
I believe that dorms should be allocated based mainly on financial situation of the student.
The Druze not serving for 'religious reasons' is just as disgusting as an Orthodox Jew not serving for 'religious reasons'. Don't want to serve? Fine - But don't expect to receive public services.
Leads to racism.
another story by anti israel haaretz to inflame and incite.... who cares? arabs can go to egypt or saudi arabia and attend the University of Terrorism to expand and improve on thier murderous ways.
Israeli who serve in the IDF or who complete National Service always benefit later in life and this is as it should be. After all, three years in the IDF at age eighteen is a sacrifice of no mean proportions. Druze and some Bedouin also join the military. Israeli Arabs serve neither in the IDF nor do they complete National Service. It stands to reason that advantages should be forthcoming to those Israelis who actually support and sacrifice for the Nation. Instead of the usual Arab complaints, efforts should be made by them to enhance the country instead of expecting everything to be given holus bolus.
Arabs get 40% of beds in the dorms????? This is totally crazy! Im glad TAU is taking steps to curb this appeasement of the minority (which happens in every western democracy, not just Israel). The Left will be upset, but how can they possibly justify giving under 20% of the population 40% of the rooms??? Thats discriminating against the majority.
Dorm rooms are only given to people who don't live in the area of the university so almost all of the students from the TA area (who are mostly Jewish) aren't be eligable for a dorm room. Israeli Arabs, on the other hand, tend to live mostly in the north of the country so their relative portion of students eligible for dorm rooms is greater than their % in the population at large. In addtion, dorm rooms here aren't exactly luxurious so students who come from family's with money will often prefer to rent an apartment and since Israeli arabs are, on average, poorer than Israeli Jews, it's likely that the portion of Arabs requesting a dorm room is higher than among Jews. So looking only at the % of Israeli society is really silly. All that having been said, I don't see why military service shouldn't be a factor in granting rooms in the dorm. Kids who serve in the Army or volunteer for national service give 2-3 years of their life to Israeli society as a whole and risk their lives for us while those Israeli citizens who don't serve, Arabs and Jews, can use those years to work, earn money, learn etc... so why shouldn't military service be a factor. The bottom line though is that the government should make university tuition and student housing affordable so that no Israeli, Jew or Arab, should be prevented from receiving an education simply because he/she doesn't have the money to pay for it.
I suspected that there were more to the numbers... Reality is often more complex than how it initially appears. Great answer, ESRB. Honest and balanced. Thank you.
@ERSB I mostly agree. Do Arab and Jewish students actually share the same premises? If so, having them live side by side would no doubt open the minds of the servicemen who just spent two or three years being taught the virtues of deterrence by killing civilian arabs in Palestine and the surrounding countries. As such, I'd be ready to see it as a great service to the young Israeli men. Let's have these students live side by side.
All Israeli citizens should have to perform either military or civil service - including Arabs and Haredim - EVERYONE - no excuses. If an Arab is cleared by security, he/she should be allowed in the Army too. We need to unite as a nation.
are the same who claim that haredim should serve in the army.
... getting into dorms in Gaza City. What are we going to do about that?
that must be the stupidest thing i ever heard in my life. until you are recognized as a citizen there come back in claims.
when israel bombed them to pieces in Operation Atone For Previous WW2 Meekness
The Military deserves it.
the building workers in Israel are Arabs and they payed taxes too... so.....
remember that the university was built on the ruins of their houses. Just treat them the same way the USA treats the Native Americans, im not asking for much.
It is a slippery slope to base your social planning on tax incidence. The Jews pay almost all the taxes in Israel, and would result in them receiving almost all the services.
Mostly Arabs? Might have been once, but not now. Paid taxes? I'm sure not.. Most that did work in construction were doing it "on the black".
Placement preference to dorm space is the least their country can do for them
1. Previously 40% of Dorms to Arabs and 40% Israeli students - We demand FULL INVESTIGATION - the statistics is clear - since Arabs account for less then 20% of the population they should have had around 16% of the Dorms (80% x 0.2) but they , until this year, received 40% which means they got 250% more then what one would expect. The stats are clear - Israelis have been racially discriminated by the university. While the university may be trying to reduce this racist imbalance - and so an act in the right direction - this does not address the issue of justice for all those who suffered such abuse nor is the system guranteing equality for the future. We demand an independent commission of inquiry. (somehow the Arab students did not complain by 250% favoritism in allocation towards them - I am sure they did not realise) 2. No - they are not required by law to serve. They obviously refused national service for their own community (major campaign against it). So not been required is not the same as not not doing. Obviously people who contribute should be taken into account - the same as on Job application one rights about community work etc, the same as we expect companies to contribute to society ,etc - and we should encourage those who contribute vs. those who are happy to receive and complain (Even when they received 250% more they 'should have')
...doesn't mean you can't choose to serve. These people are getting the benefit of 3 years they are not spending in the army and then they have the nerve to complain that they are not getting the dorm room they wanted!
No brainier there.