No Uniformed IDF Soldiers In University Classes? The Sorry State of Academic Affairs in Israel.

Intriguing numbers from the Population and Migration Authority . . .

Dr. Shlomo Mor Yosef, Director General of the Authority, released these figures yesterday:

0: the number of infiltrators (primarily Eritreans and Sudanese) who entered Israel in 2018

3,490: the number of infiltrators who voluntarily departed Israel in 2018

7,957: the number of infiltrators who were involuntarily deported from Israel in 2018

42,000: the number of infiltrators from Eritrea and Sudan who remain in Israel (approximately 35,000 adults and 7,000 minors). According to Yosef, these people can work freely in the country; their children receive free education; and they receive medical care at a cost of only about 100 shekels ($30) a month.

60,000: the number of illegal “tourists” in the Israel–illegal because their visa has expired.

15,000: the number of illegal foreign workers in Israel–illegal because their work permit has expired.

Of course, one number that Yosef left out is that there are anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 illegal Palestinian workers in the country at any given time.

All of which means that we now have somewhere between 167,000 and 217,000 illegal people living in Israel.  

More numbers from the Central Bureau of Statistics . . .

Several days ago, we reported that 426,000 Israelis are officially classified as “others.” At the time we did not explain who most of these “others” are.

Two days ago, we reported that 29,600 new immigrants poured into the country during 2017. Obviously all of these new immigrants qualified for aliya because of the Law of Return for Jews.  This means that they were able to come because of a parent or grandparent being Jewish.

However, it turns out that 54% of them are not “halakhic” Jews–meaning that their mothers are or were not Jewish. In Israel, this means that this 54% would need to undergo an orthodox conversion to be officially recognized as Jewish. 

Yesterday, Rabbi Shaul Farber of the Itim Organization commented on this untenable situation:  “The State of Israel creates a demographic crisis by encouraging the immigration of Jews to Israel under the Law of Return, but does not allow them to establish themselves as Jewish. These are people who serve in the IDF, pay taxes, and are an inseparable part of the Jewish-Israeli social fabric . . . [The] conversion system [must be addressed]. This is our Jewish and democratic duty.”

These people are the “others” noted in the population statistics. Rabbi Farber is correct; they need to have an accessible conversion system that allows them full participation in Israeli society as Jews.

So much for our pusillanimous Israel Prison Service . . .

Today, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan issued new guidelines for the Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons.

They included:

*Hamas and PLO (Fatah) prisoners will be separated.

*The money that these prisoners receive from Israel will be cut in half.

*These prisoners will no longer be allowed to cook in their rooms.

*A limit will be placed on the amount of water that can be used each day by prisoners.

*A limit will be placed on the amount of television that prisoners can watch.

What do you think the response of the Israel Prison System was to these obviously needed changes?  A spokesman said that “the prisons are a barrel of human explosives and reducing privileges will compromise the level of security in the prisons.”

Amazing.

This is a prison system which already kowtows to every prisoner demand and even turns a blind eye when prisoners smuggle sperm outside, smuggle phones inside, prepare holiday feasts in their rooms, obtain college degrees at will, and, and, and.

TODAY’S BLOG:

No Uniformed IDF Soldiers In University Classes?

The Sorry State of Academic Affairs in Israel.

It is hard to believe what happened yesterday in a classroom at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. But then again, it is not.

A student who is serving in the IDF walked into her class in uniform.

She was immediately attacked verbally by an Arab student in the class. Throughout the professor’s lecture, the Arab student continued to interrupt the class to berate the soldier-student. The professor made no attempt to silence the interrupter. 

When the class ended, the student-soldier went to the professor to complain. But guess what happened?

She was berated again, this time by the professor who yelled at her: ” . . . you can’t be naive, to be here in uniform and want to be treated as a civilian. You are a soldier in the Israeli army and they’ll treat you accordingly.”

When the soldier-student asked: “Does it bother you that I’m sitting in uniform in the classroom?”, the professor responded: “If you have something to say, write a letter. I have other matters, I have listened enough and told you what I think; you don’t even respect my time.”

All of these exchanges were recorded by other students in the class, one of whom commented afterwards: 

“I witnessed the most outrageous scene at the university on Tuesday, and there were plenty to choose from. A student came to Dr. Hilfrich’s class wearing an army uniform. A fellow student took offense and kept remarking on her attire throughout class. Instead of reprimanding the student for interrupting the class, the distinguished lecturer chose to rebuke the soldier for coming to class in uniform.”

So who, you may ask is “Dr. Hilfrich”?

It turns out that she is Dr. Carola Hilfrich, a senior lecturer at Hebrew University. As she has written on the university website:  “Originally from Germany, where I studied German Literature and Philosophy at the universities of Munich and Berlin, I conducted my doctoral studies and research in Jewish German literature and thought at the Hebrew University.”

By this afternoon, following a protest on campus and scathing criticism from across the political spectrum calling for Hilfrich’s dismissal, both the university and Dr. Hilfrich issued this tepid apology:  “The Hebrew University honors all its students, including those who come to study during their military service, whether they are regular soldiers, career soldiers, or reservists. These students also receive additional academic support if necessary. The Hebrew University’s management condemns disrespectful behavior between students and students, and between faculty members and students. The university and the lecturer apologize to the student who felt hurt, and we will continue to work to strengthen the sense of personal security of each student.”

The truth of the matter is that for two reasons it does not take a rocket scientist to understand how this happened. 

First, most Israeli university campuses have become hotbeds of Arab student activism. This has happened over the course of decades as more and more Arabs (both Israeli-Arabs and Palestinians) have sought higher education. As their numbers have swelled, Arab student unions have regularly carried out demonstrations on campus and intimidated Israeli Jewish students. Your humble servant’s own daughter often spoke of Arab attempts to intimidate her on the Hebrew University campus ten years ago when she was a student there. 

The point is that Arab students feel emboldened and empowered to verbally attack Jewish students at will.

Second, the academic culture of the many universities in Israel, particularly Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and Ben Gurion University embraces the Palestinian narrative and offers courses which undermine Israel and seek to delegitimize our country. You need look no further than the extraordinary lengths that Hebrew University went to this past summer to fight for the entrance of BDS activist Lara Al Qassam into the country so that she could study at Hebrew University School of Law.

That a German-born lecturer immersed in this academic culture and specializing in Arab-Israeli literature would berate a soldier-student is not difficult to understand.

Nevertheless, the fact that this incident did happen is testament to the sorry state of academic affairs on Israeli university campuses today.