Adalah report accuses Israeli academia of apartheid against Palestinian students
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Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, released a report this week accusing Israeli academia of systemic apartheid against Palestinian students since October 2023. The report documents more than 130 disciplinary cases across about 40 institutions, with over three-quarters of targeted students being women. It describes a two-track system where Palestinians face an administrative track lacking standard protections, while Jewish Israelis retain constitutional track safeguards.
Key Facts
- Adalah received more than 130 inquiries from Palestinian students facing disciplinary proceedings across approximately 40 institutions.
- More than three in four of the targeted students were women.
- The report concluded that Israeli academia has established a two-track disciplinary system amounting to apartheid within higher education.
- Palestinians go through an 'administrative track' with suspended procedural protections, while Jewish Israelis have 'constitutional track' protections.
- Institutions relied on automated software like Google Translate to interpret Arabic texts, prayers, and cultural expressions.
Disciplinary Cases
One Palestinian student faced permanent expulsion and revocation of all academic credits at Zefat Academic College after posting a video of a religious preacher praying for Gaza. Another Palestinian student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa was suspended for posting a Quranic verse. Adalah received more than 130 inquiries from Palestinian students facing disciplinary proceedings across approximately 40 institutions. More than three in four of the targeted students were women.
Two-Track System
The report concluded that Israeli academia has established a two-track disciplinary system amounting to apartheid within higher education. Palestinians go through an 'administrative track' characterised by suspension of standard procedural protections and the presumption of innocence. Jewish Israelis have 'constitutional track' protections grounded in the rule of law. Adi Mansour, an Adalah affiliate attorney and co-author of the report, described the system as 'institutional incompetence' compounded by unwillingness to engage with non-Zionist perspectives.
Procedural Flaws
The report revealed systemic procedural flaws in monitoring Palestinian students, notably reliance on automated software like Google Translate to interpret Arabic texts, prayers, and cultural expressions. Mansour said defence linguists' opinions were routinely dismissed or disregarded. One committee noted a student's identification with children in Gaza could be 'interpreted as offensive' and questioned why the student did not identify with Israeli children. Historically, Article 17 of Israel's Students' Rights Law limited disciplinary powers to conduct connected to academic studies, but institutions expanded their jurisdiction after the war on Gaza began.
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