Lecturers at Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy of Art and Design caused an uproar when they expressed support for the ongoing struggle against Israel by Palestinians in Gaza and east Jerusalem.
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In an email sent to the academy's Arab Israeli students, the lecturers wrote:
"We ask to express our deep identification with your struggle for a home [and] freedom in light of the police and settler violence, the fruits of government policies expressed in the events in recent days in Sheikh Jarrah, the Damascus Gate [in Jerusalem's Old City], and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We understand full-well the difficulty of studying at institutes of the occupying and oppressive people, and all the more so at this time."
The email sparked anger among Jewish students at the academy, who signed a petition in protest of the lecturers' email.
"We students feel our situation is being completely ignored, and we are hurt by the lecturers' decision to pick a side at this time. We are all having difficulty, and the reality impacts both sides of the aisle. Thus, a letter addressed to one side of the population constitutes the taking of political sides, divisive means, the condemnation of a large portion of students, and even blatant support for terrorism.
The petition continued: "The letter sent by many of our lecturers bolsters the sense that the academy has a view that embraces opinion on a specific side of the political spectrum while other opinions, even if they are not radical, are erased and unaccepted."
In response, the academy said, "This is not the position of the Bezalel academy. At the academy, lecturers and students … hold a variety of opinions. At the academy, which advocates for freedom of expression and creativity, there is room for voicing protest and personal opinions from all directions and spaces."
In addition to the letter, one lecturer announced she would not hold her usual Wednesday class in a message many students saw as comparing recent events to the Holocaust.
In her message, the lecturer wrote: As a Jewish woman from the Diaspora, the sight of stun grenades being thrown at a house of worship on a holy day brings up difficult memories that made us say, 'Never again.'
"In every class, there are students from different socio-economic or other backgrounds, but in a civilized society, they are equal before the law. Education in 'safe spaces' does not protect those who are scared to walk the street or those who cannot prepare their homework because their computer has been vandalized," the lecturer wrote.
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