Haifa University campus. Photo Credit: +972 Magazine
The yearly election for the University of Haifa Students’ Union witnessed a coordinated attempt to keep Palestinian and Jewish-Arab student groups from getting their representatives on the ballots.
The existing union administration silently moved the elections, which are regularly held in December, forward by three months, before the start of the school year. The announcement for the new schedule for the elections was posted on its website, which is not the main platform for union communications and is very rarely visited by the membership, according to students.
Despite the unannounced change in schedule and the limited time to prepare lists, about 50 students showed up on the morning of September 9 for registration. However, the handful of students who were there for registration before them, all belonging to the current union administration, took about 50 minutes each registering, filling up the entire registration window which was set to be open only from 9 am to 12 pm. According to student testimonies, the registration process is designed to only take a couple of minutes with candidates only required to submit school ID numbers, name, and faculty information. Although they arrived before the registration period ended, those students were not allowed to register.
The unreasonable actions of the union administration, as well as the fact that the students that were denied registration were affiliated with the Palestinian-Israeli parties of Balad and Hadash, all point to an intentional restriction on the representation of such groups. This type of development is especially significant in Haifa University given that the student base of the institution has a Palestinian majority. According to some students, the short history of student union elections at Haifa Unviersity have witnessed similarly dubious practices around elections, including announcing the 2022 elections through notices posted on campus during the summer, when most students were away. Such practices prevent Palestinian and Jewish-Arab students from being equal members of the academic environment they are a part of and thus constitute a major violation of academic freedom.
Despite the expressed grievances about the election process, the university’s administration refused to intervene, stating that the union is an independent body and that it has no authority to intervene in its elections. The Israel-based Academia For Equality forwarded a letter signed by more than 130 faculty members to the Haifa University administration, urging it to ensure at least a minimum of rights for students, in order to ensure free and fair elections.
Haifa University has historically witnessed and taken part in the repression of Palestinian students. Examples include denial of dorm rooms on the basis of lack of military service, a long resistance by the administration to deny places of prayer for Muslim students, repeated punishment of students for peaceful campus protests, and more. Even at a more fundamental level, Haifa University has been central to the effort for the “Judaization” of Galilee, as argued by Maya Wind in her recent book “Towers of Ivory and Steel”. Due to its strategic placement on top of a hill, the Haifa University campus was used by the Israeli military for surveillance until the early 2000s.[1]
Endangered Scholars Worldwide is deeply concerned about the ongoing violation of the academic freedom of Palestinian and Jewish-Arab students at Haifa University. We call on the Haifa University Students’ Union to immediately take actions necessary for restoring the right of the student body to have free and fair elections. ESW further calls on the University of Haifa administration to ensure the presence of democratic governance practices within its campus. We invite the global community dedicated to upholding human rights globally to join our call.
Read our country profile on Israel/Palestine here.
Sources and further reading:
[1]Wind, M. (2024). Chapter 2: Outpost Campus. In Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom. Verso. Paragraphs 48-49.
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