Top higher education official tapped, following predecessor’s clash with minister

Israel’s universities elect a new chairman of the Committee of University Heads, after the previous official quit in protest of government policies.

Prof. Asher Cohen, the president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will take up the role.

His predecessor, Ron Robin, quit while comparing governmental trends in Israel to those in Turkey.

“We are witnessing attempts to take over the sciences in Israel, which are aimed at intimidating, weakening, censoring, and allowing political interests to dictate the research agenda,” Robin wrote in a letter to students and faculty at Haifa University, where he serves as president, on Tuesday. “There is a clear and immediate danger to the State of Israel and to the future of us all,” he added.

Robin said his decision to resign followed a series of steps taken by Higher Education Minister Ze’ev Elkin, the most serious of which was his decision not to keep on Michal Neumann as director of the Higher Education Council. Neumann took over for Matanyahu Englman six months ago when the latter was appointed state comptroller. Her term ends this week.

Robin claimed Elkin’s decision to get rid of Neumann was motivated by intentions to weaken the independence of the Higher Education Council — “the holy of holies whose role is to be the critical buffer between politics and science.”

Cohen applauds Robin’s protest, calling it a “brave step.”

Elkin is serving in a post that was established upon the formation of the current government earlier this year, which takes responsibilities away from the education minister and the environmental protection minister (Elkin is also the water minister).

Since assuming the role, he has clashed with members of the HEC over his support for halting on-campus exams amid the coronavirus pandemic.