The District Court in Haifa responded this morning (Wednesday 18/9/24) to an urgent request submitted on behalf of dozens of students from the University of Haifa, when it ruled that the elections for the student union at the academic institution will be postponed to a later date than planned, following allegations of serious irregularities and damage to the election process.
As published in Hai Fe on 9/9/24, dozens of students arrived at the offices of the student union at the University of Haifa at the appointed times, in order to submit their candidacy for the union, but found themselves waiting for long hours at the door of the offices, until some of them did not even get to do what they requested and submit candidacy. In the request, it is claimed that the incumbent representatives of the association "drag on" filling out their form over 40-50 minutes, while in practice it only takes a few minutes.
The judge strongly criticized the conduct of the association, and stated that its actions harmed the students' rights to be elected, by piling up difficulties that prevented them from applying. He ordered that the elections planned for September 18, 2024 be postponed to a later date and charged the association with expenses totaling NIS 8,000. The students were represented by lawyers Yotam Blauschild and Sapir Dollinger from the Herzog Fox Neman office.
Oral Vaknin, the chairman of the largest student body at the university and the leader of the struggle, claimed that the association acted in an anti-democratic manner by hiding the submission notice on the association's website, which prevented many students from submitting their candidacy.
"As part of the forceful and anti-democratic behavior of the association headed by Elad Assis, it buried the announcement of the candidacy for the elections deep on its website, so that in practice it did not take care of proper publication and thus violated its legal duty," Vaknin said.
"We are working to return the association to students."
131 lecturers signed a letter of demand from the university to ensure free and representative elections for the student union and to change the academic regulations, so that an association chairman who was not elected in free elections could not serve as a senate member.
It should be noted that this is not the first time allegations have been made of stealing the elections in the student union at the university. Attorney Yotam Blauschild representing the students expressed his satisfaction with the decision.
The district court informed Hai Pa News Corporation:
The district court decided to postpone the elections in the student union at Haifa University.
A ruling that was received at the district court in Haifa decided to postpone the elections that were supposed to be held on Tuesday 17/9/24 to Wednesday 18/9/24 at the Haifa University Student Union. The court accepted the request submitted by many students who claimed irregularities in the election registration process.
According to the allegations, the student union at the University of Haifa tried to cheat and conduct the elections in an unfair and quick manner before the start of the academic school year, while not allowing the candidates to participate in the elections, even though they have a legal right to run. The applicants will be represented by attorney Yotam Blauschild and Sapir Dollinger from the Herzog Fuchs Neman attorney office.
Advocate Yotam Blauschild stated that:
We welcome the decision of the district court, which accepted our position and decided to prohibit the student union at the University of Haifa and the election committee on its behalf from holding the elections for the association's council at the time and in the manner in which the things were done. The court placed a clear and unequivocal 'stop sign' in the face of the anti-democratic and forceful behavior of the association and the election committee, who wanted to blatantly damage the right of dozens of students to be elected as council members. Our licensees are determined to continue the legal fight to 'clean out the stables' in the association and its institutions and to hold fair and democratic elections on campus.