The University of Haifa may have distanced itself from the decision of the Faculty of Law not to end its graduation ceremony with the singing of Hatikvah, the national anthem, but the issue has yet to subside. Professor Elkin-Koren continued, "State control of all aspects of civilian life, including science and culture, does not leave room for creative civilian activity. In the special case of Israel, such an environment hampers the possibility of working together with non-Jews (not only with Arabs, but with other non-Jewish immigrants and ultra-orthodox Jews who are not Zionists). Israel's Channel One TV station displayed a Faculty of Law internal email written by Professor Ali Zaltsberger, in which he denounced the university's distancing from the faculty's decision. "The university's announcement sounds to me like appeasement and political weakness of an academic institution in the face of an anti-democratic regime. The university is not a Zionist institution, and is not obligated to sing the national anthem." Professor Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, President of the University of Haifa, said Tuesday, "This was a rare incident that shouldn't have happened, and we will make sure it won't happen again. We are, in fact, a Zionist university." Following the incident, Haifa University management decided to turn the unwritten tradition of singing the national anthem at graduation ceremonies, into an obligatory activity that will appear, in writing, in the official charter of the university. A statement from Haifa University's student union said: "We are shocked by the insistence of the faculty leadership to violate a clear instruction by the president of the university and to ignore the unprecedented public and student outcry that has taken place over the past few days. We demand that the Faculty of Law recognizes its mistake, apologize to the students who were offended by it, and restore honor to the ceremonies."
