The University of Haifa will hold a conference today during which the Hebrew version of the book “Islam is the Solution” by the former terrorist and founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Nimar Darwish, will be launched.
The event is being organized by the university together with The Jewish-Arab Center and the Haifa Conservatory for the Study of Religions. During the conference, United Arab List chairman Mansour Abbas will give an address on the topic of “Islam as a solution and path.”
Darwish is considered to have left the path of terror that he took in the past when in 1979, he founded the “Usrat Al-Jihad” terror group, which included some 70 Arabs who cashed weapons and executed operations whose purpose was to cause financial damage to the state of Israel.
While some of the university’s faculty did not require their students to attend the conference, others, in fact, did. For instance, Dr. Mohamed Halailah wrote to his students: “I will mention that, as opposed to the previous lectures, I will come with the class roster, and only someone with ample excuse can be absent. I want to see that we as a class fill the hall and also ask questions and try to contribute to the discussion since this is a critical issue.”
One of the University of Haifa students was furious at Halailah’s decision to require attendance at the conference. In a discussion with Israel National News, the student stated: “The lecturer Mohamed Halailah, who was interviewed multiple times by Channel 12, regularly supports the Palestinian side and the Palestinian armed conflict against Israel. In his classes, he often calls the War of Independence the ‘War of 48,’ and the riots in the mixed cities during operation Guardian of the Walls he calls the ‘May Events’, and echos the ‘Nakbah’ and the false message that Israel isn’t democratic.”
According to the student, Halailah is “A lecturer in a course called ‘Majority-Minority Relations in Israel,’ but in practice, the only minority that we learn about is the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, and he we never spoke about any other minority or the relations with a minority that isn’t Arab. Today we are forced to come to a lecture in honor of the publishing of a book by Nimar Darwish. We have to both come a half hour early and listen to incitement against Israel and the presentation of Islam as the ultimate solution.”
The University of Haifa stated: “This is an academic conference which deals directly with content studied in the Islam and Middle East department. An academic conference is an academic activity, just like classes and reading material.”
Avraham Hason, chairman of the Likud-affiliated Lavi student organization, responded: “Haifa University, which only a few weeks ago called the new right-wing government the end of democracy, is echoing and forcing students to attend the launch of a terrorist’s book which discusses his actions as the leader of a terror organization and his attempts to bring an end to Israeli democracy.”
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