Israeli Minister Accused of Plagiarism as Graduate Student

Image by Wikipedia
Likud deputy minister Ayoub Kara was accused of plagiarism when he was a graduate student, TheMarker newspaper reported.
Kara, a Likud lawmaker and the deputy minister of regional cooperation, was required to take additional courses to fulfill the requirements for his master’s degree in public policy, but still managed to graduate on time in 2013, according to the Israeli business newspaper.
Tel Aviv University spokeswoman Orna Cohen confirmed in a statement to JTA that Kara received no credit in a course following the submission of a final paper in which “a problem” was found. The university knew of no other plagiarism allegation that involved the long-serving Knesset member and later deemed his loss of course credit sufficient punishment, she said.
According to Cohen, lecturer Gal Alon filed a formal complaint with the university in July 2012 alleging that Kara’s final report for his course plagiarized wholesale from a paper published by the Myers-JDC-Brookdale think tank in Jerusalem. Alon said he readily identified the plagiarism because he played a role in formulating the original policy paper.
At a hearing in June 2013, the university disciplinary committee determined Kara’s loss of credit for the course was sufficient punishment and recommended against further action, according to Cohen.
Kara spokesman Shlomo Weiser told JTA that Kara’s work for the course was rejected because he had misunderstood citation rules for using government documents in academic work. Weiser suggested the lecturer’s plagiarism allegations might have been motivated by political differences with the right-wing politician, though he offered no evidence to that effect.
Weiser also noted that after Kara failed to win election to the Knesset in 2013, he took advantage of a year-and-a-half hiatus from politics to pursue further academic credentials. Weiser said that Kara passed the Israel Bar Association’s examination to become an accredited lawyer during the period and is now considering pursuing a doctorate in public policy. Kara was re-elected to the Knesset in 2015.
Alon declined to comment to JTA about his complaint against Kara, except to say, “There are certain things that should be unacceptable in any academic institution.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture This Jewish New Yorker survived the Holocaust and the Hungarian Revolution, and is still helping others today
-
Fast Forward Trump says he and Netanyahu are ‘on the same side of every issue’ following talks on Iran, tariffs
-
Fast Forward California school board members accused of antisemitism during contentious meeting
-
Fast Forward Over 100 Chicago-area rabbis and cantors condemn Trump’s campus crackdown
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.