Hebrew University Offers Stipends To ‘Palestinians In Occupied Territories’ Right-Wing NGO’s Object

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A shocking official document of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem calls on Palestinian students “from the occupied territories” to apply for the “Yad Hanadiv” doctoral scholarship program, according to an Arutz Sheva report

According to the document, the scholarship will be NIS 8,000 per month for five years. Those eligible, according to the language of the document are “Palestinian citizens living in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.” The document clarifies that “Palestinians from East Jerusalem are not eligible.”

The Lach Yerushalaim organization and the Im Tirtzu movement were outraged by the document: “A public institution, which is receiving a huge amount of its budget from the taxpayers, operates in a post-Zionist manner and defines areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority as “occupied.” As if the work in the academic preparatory program was not enough, as if it wasn’t enough that students who support terrorism and who went on strike from their studies during Operation Guardian of the Wall were accepted, now the university is opening its doors to students who come from an education of hatred of Israel and the murder of Jews, as has been shown in the textbooks of the Palestinian Authority. This is a disaster for Israeli academia, the Minister of Education must intervene!”

The university responded, stating that “The Hebrew University has an unprecedented range of stipends reaching sums of tens of million shekels. The stipends are designed to give equal opportunities and economic benefits in the most prestigious institution in Israel, and are offered to a wide range of students in the periphery including charedim, Ethiopians, first- generation academics and Arabs.”

Currently Education Minister Yoav Kisch has yet to respond to the requests by the two groups to prevent the university from offering such a program.