Harsh disciplinary sanctions against Palestinian students in Israeli universities amount to “apartheid” in the country’s higher education system, a legal and human rights centre claims.
In a report, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, says that Palestinians studying at Israeli universities have been suspended from their studies for merely “liking” social media content that relates to Palestine.
A “two-track” disciplinary route is opening up in the country, the report alleges, saying that Israeli universities are imposing increasingly harsh sanctions on Palestinian students, while Israeli Jewish students go without punishment for similar actions.
Apartheid in Israeli Academia is based on 132 enquiries that Adalah received from Palestinian students relating to disciplinary proceedings tied to social media posts on private accounts. In 61.3 per cent of all the enquiries received, institutions imposed interim suspensions, barring individuals from their studies before any determination of culpability had been made, the report says.
Law enforcement authorities became involved in 20 cases, some entailing arrests, with institutions at times directly reporting their own students to the police.
