Finance Minister Avigdor Liberam on Wednesday ordered to examine the option of cutting funding to Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva after the institution hosted a rally on its premises earlier this week during which participants waved Palestinian flags and sang anti-Israel chants.
On Monday, hundreds of Bedouin students participated in an event on the occasion of last week's Nakba Day on campus. Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, is a day of commemoration for the Arab defeat in the 1948-1949 war around the creation of Israel.
According to Liberman, the conduct of the southern university violated the fundamental Jewish values that the country’s laws seek to protect.
"The rally marked the events known to the Arab students as the 'Nakba' events, during which things were said and flags were flown in a manner crossing what is acceptable in such demonstrations," associates of the minister said.
“During the demonstration, things were said that equate Israel’s Independence Day… to a day of mourning, that deny the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, that incite racism and violence, that support an armed struggle against the state as well as alleged lawlessness."
The Nakba Day rally at Ben Gurion University
(Photo: Herzl Yosef)
The participants and organizers later emphasized that they were merely acting upon their right to free speech.
The rally garnered nationwide criticism, including from Be’er Sheva Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, who called on university president Prof. Daniel Haimovich to take action against students who took part in the rally.
In response to the criticism, the university said that it had approved the rally since it had no legal basis to prohibit it as Israel holds official ties with the Palestinian Authority. However, some claimed that the administration prohibited students from entering campus grounds with Israeli flags while the rally was ongoing.