Ronen Shoval
Ronen ShovalGershon Ellinson

Ronen Shoval, the Chairman of the Academic Council for National Policy, told Arutz Sheva that recent criticism leveled at Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked from Hebrew University professors has exposed the widely held belief Israeli academia is dominated by the Left. 

"When I did my doctorate at Hebrew University, two lecturers who had seen my dissertation topic came up to me and said my doctoral thesis would never be approved here," he noted. "Luckily, I went to the Sorbonne and completed my doctorate with distinction."

"I see today, those who join us at Academic Council for National Policy, are already tenured. Those who have not yet received tenure wouldn't dare join so as not to hurt himself." 

"At Hebrew University, Haifa University and Tel Aviv University, the pendulum swings between Hadash and Meretz," he asserted. "Right-wing people are hiding in the closet." 

According to Shoval, professors' left-wing agenda also seeps into the curriculum. "There is a serious problem of lecturers and professors who take advantage of their academic standing to promote a political worldview." 

"You see an exclusion of certain positions in syllabi," he listed, "silencing students, ignoring students with nationalistic positions. This attitude took vivid expression this week, with the inciting statements of two prominent professors who unprecedentedly attacked Ayelet Shaked."

Shoval argued it was the job of the Higher Education Council to assert tighter control over universities with "anti-Israel agendas." 

"The case this week, is indicative of the severity of the situation across all the universities," he insisted. "To stop the situation and the discrimination against the nationalist camp, the Higher Education Council should ensure syllabuses are balanced and that professors do not use their positions to promote post-Zionist views." 

"It's unacceptable that this happens at any institution that receives money from the state," he blasted. 

"A university needs freedom of thought, and not just only one position being represented in the classroom. No university should award a grant to an anti-Zionist [who attacks] IDF soldiers, as happened in one of the departments of sociology."

"The change must start from the top," Shoval stressed. "The Education Ministry and the Council for Higher Education must determine what is and isn't permitted to lecturers, and whoever breaks the regulations should be sanctioned."