On Monday, Bar Ilan University held a debate between Naftali Bennett,
former director of the Yesha Council and Ashraf Al-Ajrami, former PA
Minister of Prisoner Affairs.
As part of the university’s week of political programming, the
adversaries discussed the contentious Israeli-‘Palestinian’ conflict,
incitement in Gaza, and the regional implications of the “Arab
Spring.”
Since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, it has been
prohibited to hold activities on university grounds that had “any
scent” of political activism, Liron Politzer, Chair of the Bar Ilan
University Student Union, told Arutz 7.
Recently, though, the university has been changing its policy,
encouraging students to engage in political activities and
discourse. “We have people from the right and the left,” Politzer
said. “We support every activity here. We think the university should
be a place where you can have those kind of discussions.”
Akiva Lamm, of the Lavi- Gilad student organization, said the group
recently decided to protest the Student Union’s cooperation with
the ‘One Voice’ organization leading to their inviting Ashraf Al-
Airami to speak at campus. Ashraf has previously encouraged and
provoked the abduction of Israeli soldiers. This is something, even
under the guidelines of freedom of speech, that should not be
discussed, Lamm asserted.
“We want to bring back the discussion of Zionist and Jewish
identity,” he said. Bar Ilan used to pride itself on being an
institution founded on Jewish and Zionist values, he continued,
but “somewhere along the way” they were lost and “we want to bring
that back.”
“I think Israeli society has to make a decision about its fate,”
Naftali Bennett told Arutz 7. “I think the Arabs are irrelevant in
this equation because not many people, if any, today believe that
there will be a peace arrangement between the ’Palestinians’ and the
Israelis.”
“Right now we are in a vacuum,” Bennett continued. “It´s time for the
national camp to present an initiative… and apply Israeli law on the
Israeli parts of Judea and Samaria – the 60% of Judea and Samaria
where 100 percent of Jews live, it has to be considered Israel, so
it´s time to step up to the plate and demand that. Apply Israeli law
on Judea and Samaria.”
Bennett, who was formerly Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief of staff,
said that he is “profoundly disappointed with Netanyahu regarding
his acceptance of a potential Palestinian state west of the Jordan.
That would be a disaster- he knows it, I know it, we all know it.”
