CC-BY-SA: BlueHorizon
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has urgently contacted the President of the Hebrew University, Menahem Ben-Sasson, following the violent dispersal of protesting students by security guards and the Border Police. ACRI made clear that it is “the role of the University is to prepare students to actively participate in our democracy.”
ACRI contacted University President Ben-Sasson as a result of an incident that occurred last week, during which students participating in a demonstration were violently dispersed by university security guards and the Border Police.
In a letter to the University President, ACRI Attorney Sharona Eliahu-Chai noted that all requests by students for official approval to hold a demonstration against the new military conscription law were arbitrarily rejected by the university on the basis of a bizarre interpretation of the law. For example, a request to organize a public activity on the subject of the conscription of Druze citizens to the army were rejected on the grounds that such activity constitutes “incitement to break the law”.
Attorney Eliahu-Chai remarked that “the disproportionate reaction by the university’s security services to protest vigils being held without approval was extremely serious… the refusal of a small number of protesters to identify themselves and disperse immediately did not create a danger justifying such a shameful and violent outcome. University authorities possess a wide range of disciplinary and administrative tools… and there was no reason for them to call upon armed border police in response to a peaceful protest.”
“Part of a university’s role is to prepare students to actively participate in civil society and its democratic processes. It is dismaying to see that the Dean of Students has threatened to completely cease the provision of all public activities at the university. Freedom of speech is not a privilege, but a fundamental constitutional right and an integral component of campus life and a justification for its very existence.”
