President of Tel Aviv University, Ariel Porat, has angered students with recorded remarks in which he asserted that Arabs in Israel were suffering more than Jews during the current wave of violence that has engulfed the country.
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In a video he shared, Porat said, "Minds cannot tolerate a situation in which Jews in the State of Israel are scared to leave their homes … out of fear for their well-being and property, but the attack on Arab citizens is an attack on those who are a minority among us, and is, therefore, seven times as severe."
Porat said, "More than any other people, we Jews need to understand the significance of attacking a person solely for their ethnicity or nationality."
He said he was particularly shocked to see that the crowd of Israelis that had gathered to watch the brutal beating of an Arab driver in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam last week did nothing to stop the attack.
"What a terrible sight," he said.
Following criticism of Porat's remarks, the university edited out the words "seven times as bad." It claimed Porat had not meant to say that attacks on Arabs were worse than attacks on Jews.
In a statement, the Tel Aviv University said: "The university president issued an important public call for an immediate end to the violence and racism spreading among us, among both Arabs and Jews, which could lead to a civil war. As for the expression 'seven times as bad,' the aim was to sharpen the message that as the Jewish people, we must be particularly sensitive to attacks on a minority. Unfortunately, this expression was misconstrued and taken out of context, and as a result, half an hour later, was removed from the video to prevent misunderstandings."
In a similar incident last week, lecturers at Jerusalem's Bezalel Academy of Art and Design angered students when they expressed support for the ongoing Palestinian struggle against Israel in the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
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