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Photo: Haim Horshstein
Only three Arab students interviewed (Archive photo)
Photo: Haim Horshstein

Do accounting firms discriminate against Arabs?

In letter sent to president of Institute of CPAs, Arab students say four largest accounting firms in Israel fail to employ them; institute's president: Discrimination almost non-existent, many colleagues employ Arabs

Are the large accounting firms discriminating against Arab students? According to a letter sent to Ofer Menirav, the president of the Institute of CPAs in Israel, out of the dozens of Arab students who study at Tel Aviv University's Accounting Department, considered to be the best such program in Israel, only three students applying for jobs at Israel's four major accounting firms were called in for an interview.

 

"From the standard reply format 'we have no suitable position to match your qualifications,' without even an initial interview, our understanding is that qualifications mean nothing," the letter said.

 

Moreover, the letter specified that the three students who were interviewed received help by CPAs who were on the staff of lecturers' in the accounting faculty at the university. The four major accounting firms the letter refers to are: Kost Forer Gabai, Kesselman and Kesselman, Somech-Haikin and Brightman-Almagor.

 

Ofer Menirav said in response: "Once we received the letter we began addressing each case. To the best of my knowledge, discrimination is almost non-existent. Many of our colleagues employ Jewish as well as Arab employees. There might be a problem in the northern area since some CPA firms suffer form overall employment difficulties."

 

The office of Kesselman and Kesselman denied the discrimination allegations and said the firm does employ Arabs.

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.23.06, 18:27
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