Tel Aviv U drops ban on staff at help desk speaking Arabic

Tel Aviv University announced Wednesday that it has retracted a ban on help desk staff answering calls in Arabic, less than three months after it was introduced. The embargo was not sanctioned by the management, the university said.

The embargo was lifted a day after Israel’s Haaretz newspaper claimed that the university sent out an email in December informing staff that they cannot speak in Arabic while answering calls for assistance.

“Tel Aviv University conducts its academic affairs in Hebrew, and as such the same directive applies to the help desk,” the email stated.

The ban became public after a dispute on the matter erupted between Arab staff member Alaa Haj Yehia and the university management, Haaretz said, which led Yehia to quit her job.

The university subsequently received multiple calls and letters condemning the ban, including from several non-profit organizations working for coexistence.

The Adalah Center for Minority Rights in Israel sent the university a letter on behalf of Rabia Agbaria, a student whose call to the helpline was answered by an Arab member of staff who insisted on speaking only Hebrew, despite their mutual mother tongue.

Adalah wrote: “The university help desk provides basic and essential services to the university applicants, be they Jew or Arab. The decision to ban Arabic is even more mystifying given that many of the students working at the help desk are themselves Arabs.”

MK Youssef Jabareen from the Joint (Arab) List also called on the university to overturn its decision.

“It’s unacceptable that a central university bans Arabic and piles difficulties on its Arab students, especially given that Arabic is also an official language in Israel.”