War brings tensions, and rifles, onto campus
More than 40% of Haifa college students are Arab
HAIFA, Israel — In a classroom at the University of Haifa in late December, Yitzhak Cohen, a fourth-year law student, began the shoulder-shrugging, arm-contorting choreography familiar to any student trying to remove a backpack.
But instead of a knapsack, Cohen, 28, a reservist who had recently returned from fighting in the Gaza Strip to attend the university’s orientation, unshouldered his military-issue semiautomatic rifle and took a seat in the back of the class.
Nearly three months after the outbreak of war delayed universities’ start dates, students returned Dec. 31 to campuses in Israel for an abridged semester. Amid the usual first-day jitters, students and faculty were additionally anxious about resuming classes during a war that had unsettled the country, Jews and Arabs alike.
At the University of Haifa, a uniquely mixed institution where more than 40 percent of students are Arabs, those anxieties are amplified by what is among the school’s proudest achievements — its diversity.
For the first time since the outbreak of the war, Jewish students, some of whom had spent the past months fighting in Gaza or lost friends and family in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, rubbed shoulders with Arab students. And some of those Arab students had relatives killed in Gaza or had been targeted and silenced on social media because of their views on the war.
While the fighting in Gaza is almost 100 miles away from the university, thoughts of the war are inescapable. About 1,500 military reservists attend the University of Haifa, and as long as they’re called up, the studentsoldiers, are required to keep their weapons on them at all times. As a result, the newly armed students are bringing semiautomatic rifles to class.
“We’re doing everything possible to connect to our students and allay fears that people have,” said Ron Robin, the university’s president. That includes focus groups intended to gauge students’ feelings before the start of the semester; Arab and Jewish professors talking with students and each other about the importance of diversity and inclusion; and holding many more meetings via Zoom.
Still, fears persist. More than 50 percent of Jewish and Arab students across the country are afraid of sitting in a classroom with one another, and nearly 1 in 2 Arabs have considered not returning to campus, according to a November survey by the aChord Center, a nonprofit that focuses on ethnic relations in Israel.
Situated on a hill overlooking the port city of Haifa, the university is dedicated to a mission of encouraging students to embrace a shared society, Robin said. On a windy December day, two female students wearing army uniforms, M16s slung over their shoulders, carried plastic bags filled with dorm-room supplies, while a first-year student wandered the corridors looking for his classroom. A few women wearing hijabs gathered around a picnic table.
Nicole Rashed, 21, a Christian Arab citizen of Israel, said that a key concern among Arab students returning to campus was whether their freedom of speech would be curtailed. Since the Oct. 7 attack, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli authorities, the University of Haifa has temporarily suspended nine students who administrators said had made pro-Hamas posts on social media. Robin said that the students were still under disciplinary review and that the university was trying to reach a compromise to drop the charges.
In light of the suspensions, some Arab students said they worried that if they made comments condemning the war, it could end their academic careers.
“Arab students think that if I post about a dead baby in Gaza on my story, they will stop my studies,” Rashed said. She does not believe the university plans to be so draconian, she added, but she is wary of making posts about the war on social media.
Rashed noted that she strongly condemned Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7 and understood Israel’s need to defend itself. But she is equally critical of the mounting death toll in Gaza, where, according to health officials there, more than 22,000 people have been killed.
“Speaking about the conflict is very complicated because you have to speak perfectly,” Rashed said. But, she added, the perfect sentence does not exist, “so I would rather not say anything.”
What most frustrates Rashed is the feeling that she has to go above and beyond to prove that she does not support terrorism.