Hebrew University Will Skip ‘Hatikvah’ At Graduation To Avoid Offending Arab Students
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hebrew University will not play Israel’s national anthem at a graduation ceremony, saying it does not want to offend the university’s Arab students.
The decision not to play “Hatikvah,” or “The Hope,” at the end of Thursday night’s graduation ceremony for the Humanities Department on the Mount Scopus campus in Jerusalem was first reported on Thursday morning on Army Radio.
Army Radio reported that it had obtained a recording of a student asking the department why the national anthem would not be played and receiving a response by a department official that it was out of “consideration for the other side,” which was described as a reference to the university’s Arab community.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to reports of the decision, called it “shameful” and “the height of subservience and the opposite of the national pride.” He used the opportunity to call for the passage of the Nationality Bill, which would legally identify Israel as a Jewish state, “in order to safeguard through law our national symbols that are so precious to us.”
The university’s decision comes over concern that the Arab students and their families may feel excluded by “Hatikvah” because of its emphasis on Jewish historic aspirations for a state.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
