[Marxism] Haifa University Theatre under threat over Arab-Israeli pedagogy

["Ben Halligan" <B.Halligan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: SCUDD List at JISC [mailto:SCUDD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Franc 
Chamberlain

on 14/1/04 11:15 am, Colin Chambers at colin.chambers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Prof. Avi Oz has just been removed as director of the Haifa University Theatre 
and the theatre's continued existence, certainly as a centre for 
Jewish-Arab-Druze collaboration, is seriously threatened. 

The following is an edited version of a message from Prof. Oz. If anyone would 
like to protest, there are email addresses at the end:

The Haifa University Theatre has over the last few years been a little island 
of coexistence, in which Jewish and Arab students created and studied the 
theatre together, in harmony and peace. It achieved its due fame in national 
and international festivals. And it has also produced - God forbid - two shows 
in Arabic, the current one involving not only currently paying students, but 
some of our graduates. 

The theatre served as the major professional laboratory of the Department, 
a creative and pedagogical model for training students to operate in all the 
roles within a well-organized theatre and to put into practice what they study 
in class. 

Yesterday, in a one-sided arbitrary move, The Dean of Humanities, 
Professor Yossi Ben-Artzi,  proclaimed the dismantling of the 
University Theatre (in his own words, "he recognized it as operating 
successfully until one day he realized it didn't exist", a 
philosophical distinction too complicated for my simple mind to 
follow), dismissed its director (myself) and its artistic committee 
(all senior faculty members), and transferred the responsibility for 
productions of the Department of Theatre to a person who (by his own honest 
admission) has no knowledge of the discipline of theatre.
This proxy, a professor of ancient Jewish history, will run the theatre 
temporarily, looking for "safe" directors, possibly in the Yellow Pages. And 
don't worry - the Dean will reinvent the theatre very soon, once he finds the 
proper people to run it in a purely "pedagogical" manner, namely, no shows in 
Arabic, no harsh comments on the current situation, but instead easy plays to 
digest and delight us in these difficult times.

Here are fax numbers, in case you would like to protest:
Professor Aaron Ben-Zeev, Rector, University of Haifa
Fax +972-4-8342101, email: 


benzeev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 


Professor Yossi Ben-Artzi, Dean of Humanities
Fax +972-4-8240128, email yossiho@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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