Prof. Avishay Braverman
צילום: אלי אלגרט
Labor’s no. 2 not so keen on freedom of speech
As president of Ben-Gurion University, Professor Braverman stifled students' right to organize
The addition of Prof. Avishay Braverman to Amir Peretz's Labor Party has been presented as a new pinnacle of value.
Braverman himself is presented as the great new hope for democratic leadership. But the truth is that as president of Ben- Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Braverman was responsible for policies that stifled free speech and students' right to organize.
Under Braverman, the university, alongside the Technion in Haifa, represented the most serious examples of forbidding all political activity or organization.
Nurturing future leaders
Academic institutions are not just places for students to gain careers and knowledge. Israeli universities and colleges are producing the future generation of Israeli leaders.
A democracy that wants to survive must support its future leaders, and encourage them to become active participants in social and policy struggles. It is no coincidence that student organizations were responsible for starting most of the important social revolutions of the 20th century.
But in Israel, the words "politics" and "political party" have become abhorrent. The "non-political" now has value, whereas anything political is now seen as necessarily filthy.
This in turn gave legitimacy to a policy that withers away students' political awareness while at the same time pushing them to be "good boys and girls" – just go to class and work hard, so the university administration won't have to worry about demonstrations, collective demands or student initiatives.
But freedom to organize and freedom of speech are recognized as basic constitutional rights in Israel. It is inconceivable that state-funded universities should have the right to work so blatantly against these rights.
Getting the message
Braverman and co. want the national student union to busy itself with making photo copies and leisure activities for members. For their party, student leaders have internalized the message.
During a recent visit to the Technion, I was shocked to find a many students quoting the draconian charter of the most important technologic institution in the country: "We are a non-political campus. Political issues do not interest us."
"Don't you care about the country's future," I asked.
"If we're not happy here – we can always leave," they told me.
Happily, some students at Ben-Gurion University have not yet thrown up their hands, as opposed to their colleagues at the Technion.
But under Braverman the university tried with all its might to choke organization. Students whose only crime was distributing flyers about social and policy issues have been dragged before disciplinary committees that threaten their futures in academe.
At the behest of outsiders, Braverman posed with students last year during their fight for higher education. As a media-hungry person, he understood that the issue would bring him national exposure.
But the same Braverman, who presents himself as a sort of students' Che Guevara, continued to act like Fidel Castro at his own university. Here, we have another example of the star bird that went with the crow.
For there is no sense in going on and on about the deeds and actions of another human rights hero born of late. It's enough to ask about all those workers fired from the Histadrut labor federation.
Uri Zachi is the head of Young Meretz
