Jerusalem June 11 (IANS) Israeli academia has slammed a possible new ethical code to bar professors from speaking about politics in classrooms.
On Friday Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced the new guidelines for higher education institutions reports Xinhua news agency.
Bennett said he expects the Higher Education Council a body that oversees Israel s higher education system would discuss and approve the code soon.
The proposed code was drafted by Asa Kasher a professor of philosophy at Tel Aviv University.
Under the code professors would be forbidden from promoting their political worldview in class. Each institution would be required to establish a unit that would monitor political activity on campus.
The code would also bar lecturers from calling for academic boycotts against Israel.
The academic community reacted angrily denouncing the move as anti-democratic.
VERA the umbrella organisation of the heads of Israel s universities released a statement on Saturday saying they vehemently object the code.
It undermines institutes of higher education s freedom to decide their own codes of conduct for their academic staffs and thus infringes on academic freedom in the most serious and fundamental way the statement added.
--IANS
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Israeli academia slams barring political opinion in class
