Arab activists try to cancel age requirements at universities
BRENDA GAZZAR , THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 22, 2008
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Arab-Israeli activists are waging a campaign to revoke minimum age
requirements at Israel's universities, which they say discriminate against
their community and contribute to professional shortages in the Arab sector.

Most universities require students to be at least 19 or 20 to enroll in
departments such as social work, nursing, communication disorders,
occupational therapy, physical therapy and medicine.

While universities say the policy aims to ensure that students are at an
appropriate maturity level, activists say it disproportionately affects
Arabs, since the vast majority do not join the military at age 18.

As a result, Arabs who select these programs have to delay their studies for
one or two years after high school, prompting many to study abroad or pick
other fields altogether, activists say.

"We want them to cancel this requirement, since the population that is hurt
in a collective way is the Arab student population, because they all apply
to university at age 18 because they don't serve in the army" like most of
their Jewish counterparts, said Durgham Saif, director of the Nazareth-based
Karameh: Association for Human Rights and the attorney in a lawsuit on the
issue.

The lawsuit was filed in May 2007 against the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv
University, Ben-Gurion University, the University of Haifa and the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on behalf of Karameh and the
Monitoring Committee on Arab Education. The next hearing is scheduled for
February.

University officials say the age requirements were set for fields that
require treatment or interaction with patients, which demand a certain
maturity.

At the Hebrew University, for example, students must be 20 to enter
occupational therapy and at least 19 to start social work or nursing, said
spokesman Jerry Barach.

"The reason is that students in these areas, beginning with the second year
of studies, are already dealing with people on an individual basis in terms
of counseling and care, and the feeling is that it requires a certain amount
of maturity," Barach said.

At Tel Aviv University, students must be 20 to enroll in social work,
nursing, communication disorders, physiotherapy, occupational therapy or
medicine.

"They are majors that involve treatment of people... and they came to the
conclusion that one needs personal maturity for the needs of these fields,"
said Edi Keren, director of the university's admissions office.

The age requirement is often waived, however, for students in the Atuda'im
program, who are allowed to delay their military service and study first.

Saif argues that the exception made for these students - who are largely
Jewish - proves that the policy is discriminatory toward Arabs.

At Tel Aviv University, the age requirement is only waived for Atuda'im
students enrolled in medicine, Keren said. The policy was not discriminatory
since the university allowed anyone sent by the army - Jew or Arab - to
participate, she said.

Activists also say the policy contributes to shortages in the fields in
which there are age requirements. For example, Israel had a shortage of 250
speech therapists who speak Arabic in 2007, according to the Central Bureau
of Statistics.

And in 2001, the State Comptroller's Office said "there is a shortage of
professionals in the [Arab] sector, particularly in nurses and speech
therapists."

In 2001, just 8 percent of all physical therapists, 4% of speech therapists
and 3% of occupational therapists were Arabs.

Most of the fields with age requirements "are culturally-oriented ones" that
require Arabs, who speak the language and are familiar with the culture, to
work in the Arab sector, said Yousef Jabareen, director of the
Nazareth-based Dirasat: The Arab Center for Law and Policy, which is helping
to raise awareness about the universities' policies.

The shortages, which are aggravated by the age requirements at universities,
meant "Arab children and Arab people who need these services don't get
them," Jabareen said. "It hinders their ability to develop, manage and
succeed within society."