Left Wing Professors not deterred from teaching at illegally founded settlement University

“Leftist views don’t keep professors from teaching at Ariel”

Several academics who teach at the Ariel University Center in the West
Bank have distinctly leftist views. But they see no contradiction between
their work place and their political positions, and some were even
pleasantly surprised when they discovered what it was like.

“I thought the road to Ariel would be full of army troops, and I’d be
stopped at six checkpoints,” said chemistry Prof. Haim Cohen, who worked in
the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona for 36 years and previously
lectured at Ben-Gurion University. “I thought all the students and faculty
members would be wearing skullcaps and [ritual] fringes and their eyes
would burn with messianic fervor.”

Cohen, who always voted “between Meretz and Labor,” received an offer to
teach at the college in Ariel eight years ago, when he was about to retire.
To his surprise, most of the faculty are of Russian origin, and chose to
live in the settlement of Ariel due to the lower cost of living.

“There are a few more skullcap-wearing people here, but no messianism,” he
said. “I was also surprised by the increase in the number Arab students.
When a student from Kafr Qasem comes to Ben-Gurion University, he has
difficulty renting an apartment in Be’er Sheva. Here, he can take the bus
and sleep at home.”

“I think the conflict’s solution is two states for two peoples, but three
large settlement blocs will remain – Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumim and
Ariel,” he added. “I’m very optimistic.”

Part of the Israeli left sees the recent decision to upgrade Ariel
University Center to a full university as a move that bolsters the
occupation. Some 1,000 academics, including 18 Israel Prize laureates,
signed a petition against establishing a university in the territories,
warning that it would undermine international academic cooperation and harm
the existing universities. “The identification of Israeli academia as a
whole with the settlement policy will put it in danger,” they wrote.

“The university in Ariel strengthens the occupation,” agreed MK Dov Khenin
(Hadash ).

But a number of leftist academics who have chosen to teach at Ariel
disagree. Prof. Yossi Goldstein, for example, said he sees no contradiction
between having leftist views and working at Ariel, despite his initial
misgivings.

An expert on Zionist history and Israel, Goldstein said his voting ranges
from Meretz to “more radical” parties. Having written biographies of prime
ministers Levi Eshkol and Yitzhak Rabin, he is very familiar with the
history of West Bank settlement. But this hasn’t stopped him from teaching
at Ariel University Center for the past four years.

“It wasn’t a simple decision, but I decided to try it for one year, to see
if my fears that it’s a rightist bastion were corroborated,” he said.

Goldstein advises 13 students on their master’s theses, “all of them from
the hills around here. They pick subjects like the beginning of Gush Emunim
[the settlement movement] or the [now-defunct] National Religious Party’s
approach to security in the state’s early days. These subjects correspond
to the stereotypes of Ariel’s students,” he said.

But another group consists of Arab students “writing papers about the
Nakba” – literally, “catastrophe,” the Arabic term for Israel’s creation.

“They all know my political views,” he said. “I don’t hide it in any way. I
even joke with them about politics and religion.”

“The term occupation is correct” as applied to Ariel, he said. “We’re in
occupied territory … But I’m in an academic institution.”

“All Israeli universities were established for political reasons,” he added.

“I don’t deny the politicians who founded Ariel wanted to divide the West
Bank in two and quash the chances of creating a Palestinian state in the
West Bank,” Goldstein said. “That’s not my responsibility … My conscience
tells me I’m a tenured history professor here. If it means my children and
grandchildren can live in peace, I’d be ready to return every bit of land.”

Goldstein sees no contradiction between his work and his political
positions. He even looked into buying an apartment in Ariel for investment
purposes, but the plan didn’t work out.

“My view is simple: Israel must stay strong until peace agreements are
signed,” he said. “I don’t think an academic institution can prevent peace.”

Criminologist Mally Shechory-Bitton has been teaching at the college since
1997, as well as at Ben-Gurion University. She supports “territorial
compromise. I’m not willing to die for any land.”

But she sees no connection between establishing the university in Ariel and
territorial compromise.

“Ariel College was built to strengthen Ariel. That doesn’t interest me,”
she said. “The state decided to settle people there. They didn’t come here
out of the blue.”