Haifa University should help victims of terrorism just as it assist terrorists, the head of the Almagor terror victims association, Meir Indor, said on Sunday.
Indor was reacting to a report by the Im Tirtzu organization, which found that the legal clinics at Haifa University devote most of their resources to helping non-Jews, with a special preference for Muslim-Arab terrorists.
One of the cases handled by the clinics reportedly involved the demand by a man convicted of cruel acts of rape to receive festive meals on the Muslim holidays, and not just the sweet dessert that prison authorities hand out.
Legal clinics employ the services of law students, who receive guidance from certified lawyers.
"In the wake of the academic assistance of terrorists, we turn to Haifa University and demand that they set up a clinic for victims of terrorism," Indor told Arutz Sheva.
He stressed that "every victim of terrorism has the option of demanding, in the name of justice, that the law be followed. Therefore, a clinic such as this can help prevent the release of terrorists and be a real help when we turn to the High Court of Justice. Haifa University, you are helping the terrorists? If so, help the victims of terrorism as well.”
Im Tirtzu discovered that out of 20 cases handled by the clinics since 2009, only two assisted Jewish people. In 8 out of 10 cases handled by the Clinic for Prisoners' rights, the people assisted were terrorist prisoners, most of whom were accused of nationalist murders.
Responding to the report, Haifa University said it was “proud of its ability to create top quality research and excellent academic instruction, in an environment that is tolerant, multicultural and accepts 'the other.' Accordingly, the legal clinics, first and foremost, advance a multifaceted social activity in a variety of topics. The clinics provide students with practical experience, and at the same time contribute to the entire Israeli society. This social activity is carried out separately and with no connection to political and ideological stands, and the attempt to paint this important public and social activity in political or partisan colors is misguided and misleading.”
“Among other things, the purpose of the clinics is to enable weakened groups in Israeli society to receive a defense of their rights. Whoever sees this purpose as a sectorial one or political one, of a specific group and not society as a whole – does not understand what a democratic society is. We also stress that the activity in the clinics is not mandatory for students and only students who want to join the clinics' activity do so,” said the university, according to a report in the Mida Hebrew-language news and commentary site.