From the Office of the HU President (translated from Hebrew)
Prof. Asher Cohen, President of The Hebrew University, Prof. Tamir Shafer, Rector of The Hebrew University and Mr. Yishai Frankel, CEO of The Hebrew University to the university community:
In continuation of the initiatives that seek to threaten the image of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, we at the Hebrew University wish to emphasise to the university community – male and female students, members of the administrative and academic staff, that we will continue to work to promote values that promote full equality, liberty, freedom and human dignity in any form.
As a reformed society we must denounce a sectional discourse that seeks to achieve supremacy and exclude entire populations from the delicate social order that exists in the State of Israel.
As the leading Israeli university in the world, we must not put up with the processes of populism and extremism that exist in the political discourse that seep into the daily lives of all of us.
These days we must raise a black flag in the face of extremism, encourage acceptance of the other and tolerance.
As the president of the university, the CEO and the rector, we ask you – do not let the extremist voices influence your design and the design of the future generation of the State of Israel.
From the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and all other Deans of Israeli Faculties of Medicine
We, the deans of the six faculties of medicine in Israel are shocked by the calls being heard recently to allow discrimination in the provision of medical treatment on religious, gender, national or any grounds.
As deans entrusted with the training of female and male doctors of the future in Israel, we stand firm against such calls, whatever they may be.
Since time immemorial, we have been educating practitioners of medicine to stand up for the rights of all their patients in their distress at any time and at any hour. At the end of their studies, upon receiving the diploma, they give the doctor’s oath, which says: And you helped the sick person wherever he was. Sick if he lives, if he’s a foreigner, if he’s a citizen, if he’s easy and if he’s honourable.
We will not give a hand to destroy these basic principles and we will continue to educate Israeli doctors.
In the spirit of these things.
Prof. Keren Avraham, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
Prof. Ilon Isenberg, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Technion
Prof. Shay Ashkenazi, Dean of the School of Medicine, Ariel University
Prof. Dina Ben-Yehuda, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University
Prof. Haim Futterman, MD Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Engel Forgador, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University