Hebrew U. Arab students claim dorm discrimination

Comes after several Arab students instructed to vacate their campus apartment for Jewish students.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Hebrew university 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Hebrew university 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
A small group of Hebrew University students protested Wednesday outside the school dormitory offices after several Arab students were instructed to vacate their campus apartment for Jewish students. The peaceful demonstration, which was attended by about 20 Jewish and Arab students at the university's Mount Scopus campus, came after three Israeli Arab students were informed this week by dormitory management that they had to move out of the apartment in which they had been living for the past year. "The university does not want to mix Jews and Arabs in one apartment," said Tarik Moussa, 21, of Nazareth, a second-year nursing student and one of the three students ordered out of the apartment. Moussa said that the apartment had originally been shared by five Arab students. After two of them left, two American Jewish students had been placed in the apartment until the dorms originally allocated for them were ready, he said. "It is not acceptable or polite to remove people who have been living here for a year for those who have just come," he said, adding that the American Jewish students were happy living in the dorm with them. The English-speaking Arab students had American Jewish friends studying at the university's one-year overseas program, some of whom were at the protest. "I knew they wanted separation, but I never imagined that they would kick me out of my apartment because of this," said second-year computer student Tarik Higazi, 21, of Neveh Shalom, noting that when he had moved into the dorms last year, he had immediately been asked whether he wanted to live with a Muslim, a Christian, or a Druse. "Separation is not the answer," he said. The university, which is known for its diverse mix of Jewish, Arab and Christian students, has been the scene of tense political demonstrations in the past. Some of the Muslim Arab students openly identify with Hamas or Hizbullah, sparking tension with the Jewish students. The Hebrew University denied that it discriminated against its Arab students in the dorms, and said that some of the dorms were indeed mixed. "At the start of the school year, the dormitory administration absorbs new residents and redoes the room placements in order to fill all the rooms and to meet the requests of students," university spokeswoman Orit Sulitzeanu said in a written response. "Therefore, some of the students have been asked to temporarily move to other rooms until a new arrangement is found."