U.S. University Plans to Build Campus in Occupied Territory

By Andrea W. Lorenz

Despite a warning from Israeli Minister of Education Shulamit Aloni, the University of New Haven (UNH), a private institution in Connecticut, is going ahead with plans to open a branch campus on Israeli-occupied territory in February 1993. U.S. State Department officials and Israeli and Palestinian educators told the Washington Report that this is the first instance they know of in which an American academic institution is being built on occupied Arab land to serve a mostly Israeli student body. Billed as a "laboratory for human understanding and progress," the project aims to meet the "pent-up demand" in Israel for higher education.

The new HaSharon campus is being built in the Jewish settlement of El Kana, 12 miles east of Tel Aviv. The land is under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Ministry of Defense and has been deemed a "security" settlement by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

When Israeli Minister of Education Aloni, leader of the dovish Meretz faction in Israel's governing coalition, learned of the project in August, she sent a letter to UNH President Lawrence J. DeNardis, a former U.S. congressman from Connecticut, asking him if he knew that the proposed campus would be built in an area under Israeli military jurisdiction and outside the mandate of the Ministry of Education. She also asked whether the president understood that the plans do not "comport with" U.S. foreign policy or the spirit of international law regarding occupied territory. (She was referring to the Fourth Geneva Convention which disallows building on occupied land.) The Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv published her letter on Aug. 23.

In his Sept. 25 response to Mrs. Aloni, Dr. DeNardis wrote, "...as a former member of the United States Congress, I assure you I am aware of our responsibilities to promote the highest ideals of peace and international understanding . . . We expect the Palestinian population to become an integral part of the campus environment." Copies of her letter and his response were sent to Prime Minister Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and U.S. Ambassador William Harrop.

Dr. DeNardis told the Washington Report that he had consulted with "people in the foreign policy community" regarding the project but not with the U.S. State Department. He said the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv did not respond to the copy of his letter to Minister Aloni. Nevertheless, an official of the State Department's press office said, "The State Department's policy remains that settlement activity is an obstacle to peace. "

According to President DeNardis, Assistant Provost Dr. Ira Kleinfeld, and Provost James Uebelacker, who arranged a conference interview with this reporter, the idea and the majority of the funding for the project came from the Bio-Technical Institute of Tel Aviv, an association of two-year Israeli "junior colleges. " Since 1991, the University of New Haven has hosted approximately 100 Israeli students. When they broached the idea of building in Israel, the students' sponsors told DeNardis that thousands of Israeli students who have graduated from two-year schools are eager to obtain four year baccalaureate degrees. However, since the system of transferring credits is not common in Israel, and the seven large prestigious Israeli universities accept fewer than 20 percent of applicants, there is a growing demand for the kind of degree programs offered by UNH.

The university branch was established on occupied territory because of the reluctance of the Israeli Council on Higher Education, which operates independently of the government, to allow a foreign university to be built in Israel proper. Dr. Kleinfeld said UNH had been "shut out by the higher education cartel in Israel" and had decided to apply to the Israeli Defense Ministry's ad hoc commission on higher education for permission to build. Although they have not yet received a written permit, Dr. DeNardis said, "We expect to receive permission, and [until then] we are legally entitled to proceed."

Only 13 months after their inception, plans to build the campus have rapidly become a reality. The new rector, Dr. Richard Morrison, a physics professor, is already living at the site with his wife. The school will offer undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences, business, engineering, hotel and restaurant administration, and public safety. Classes will be taught in Hebrew and English. Five hundred Israeli students have pre-enrolled.

The University of New Haven will select the faculty, create the academic programs and set admissions procedures and graduation requirements. In August, Dr. Kleinfeld traveled to Israel to interview professors. He said he was astounded by the high quality of the applicants who could not find work in Israel. He said he interviewed American and Russian emigres, and native Israelis. When asked whether UNH had solicited applications from Palestinian professors, he replied that it had not yet done so, but planned to do so in the future.

Dr. Kleinfeld said the cost of tuition will be about 8,900 shekels ($4,210) a year, competitive with tuition at Israeli universities. Currently, UNH has no plans to offer scholarships at the HaSharon campus. (UNH offers state- and federally funded scholarships at its Connecticut campuses.) When asked how the university envisioned Palestinian students being able to afford the tuition, Dr. DeNardis replied, "We hope to create opportunities for Palestinian students" in the future.

Future plans involve developing a 100–acre campus. The 72-year-old university has one other branch, in Groton, CT. Its only prior experience in the Middle East is a seven-year-old cooperative program with Cyprus College on the island of Cyprus.

U.S. Peace Activists Protest

Soon after President DeNardis' Nov. 23 unveiling of plans to open the school, both Jewish- and Arab-American groups sent him letters warning that they believe UNH is making a mistake. In a Nov. 24 letter, the New York chapter of the International Jewish Peace Union wrote that it was "dismayed" to learn of the university's plans. "As Jews who are concerned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be resolved in a peaceful manner, we cannot help but think that your university has taken a step towards exacerbating the present conflict," the group said.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Middle East Crisis Committee also called on UNH to abandon its plan and warned of its potential for "creating an international scandal." In an interview with the Washington Report, Palestinian delegate to the multilateral peace talks Muhammad Hallaj, said about the UNH plan, it will "stir up a hornet's nest in the occupied territories."

Asked whether he had anticipated the storm of criticism that has erupted over the plan, DeNardis replied, "We didn't anticipate . . . we don't anticipate criticism. We feel people will rally to us once they understand our objectives. I am brim-full of optimism and enthusiasm. I will be there at the opening."

Readers seeking further information on the project are invited to contact ADC at (202) 244-2990.

Andrea W. Lorenz is the features editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.