Jewish Agency calls student union ‘racist’ toward new immigrants

The Jewish Agency has called students protesting against the allocation of beds at the Tel Aviv University dorms to new immigrants “hypocritical and racist.”

The Student Union at Tel Aviv University recently launched a protest against what it described as an attack on disadvantaged students. The Jewish Agency, which owns the facilities adjacent to the Tel Aviv University, planned to allocate 50 beds for new immigrant housing.

An online petition had accumulated 56 signatures at the time this article was published, and protesters against the Jewish Agency’s move pitched a tent in the quad at the Brodetsky dorms. Students also planned to hold a protest outside the home of Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky.

“Bringing new immigrants to Israel is a welcome endeavor but at the same time the Jewish Agency’s decision to have the students move out of the dormitories is tantamount to a death sentence for their academic studies at Tel Aviv University,” Student Union representative Gilad Arditi told Israel Hayom last week.

The Jewish Agency responded earlier this week, saying, “the Student Union at Tel Aviv University is tainted by hypocrisy and racism and excludes new immigrant students from the student dorms at Tel Aviv, student youths who immigrated to Israel without their parents.”

The Brodetsky and neighboring Melman dormitories have a combined 546 beds designated for the student population at Tel Aviv University. “The Jewish Agency requests to include 48 young immigrants, students who will integrate into the institutes of higher education in Israel,” the organization’s spokesperson said.

The Student Union, however, suspected that the Jewish Agency intends gradually to co-opt the dormitories for the exclusive use for new immigrants, at the expense of students of low socio-economic standing.