Adalah to Education Minister and Knesset: Do Not Bar Nakba Commemoration at Israeli Universities
Today, 14 May 2012, Adalah sent a letter to the Minister of Education Gideon Sa'ar and the Chairman of the Knesset's Educational Committee Alex Miller urging them to maintain freedom of political expression for students at institutes of higher education, and enable them to commemorate the Nakba without obstacles and conditions. Adalah sent the letter before a meeting of the Committee of Parliamentary Learning scheduled to discuss the matter.
Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher argued that in past years, institutes of higher learning were required to pay for the guards for political activities initiated by Arab students on campus. For example, the Tel Aviv University initially approved an activity to commemorate the Nakba this year, which will cost NIS 970. Last year, the board of the Hebrew University purchased a political protest permit in order to allow the participation of MK Haneen Zoabi in a related event, and paid the cost of security, which amounted to NIS 5,640.
Tel Aviv University informed the organizers of the 2012 event, "Memorializing the Nakba", that it must now demand payment for security for the event because of the new "Nakba Law". According to the university, institutions that receive government support are prohibited from funding activity that aims to commemorate the Nakba. Attorney Zaher detailed in the letter that, according to the Attorney General's response to a petition filed by Adalah and ACRI against the Nakba Law, this activity is not prohibited by law. (See HCJ 3429/11, The Alumni Association of the Arab Orthodox School in Haifa et al. v. The Minister of Finance, et. al, decision delivered 5 January 2012). She stressed that restrictions and conditions on students' political activities in universities violates their constitutional right to freedom of expression, a right that must be defended most strongly in times of disagreement, especially in cases like this, of popular and political tensions.
