"The time has come for the student union workshops at the University of Haifa to investigate in depth"

(haipo) - Complaints against the student union at the University of Haifa were filed with the Registrar of Associations and the Israel Police.

The complaints were filed by Oral Vaknin, the leader of the struggle against the association, a law student at the University of Haifa and the chairman of the largest student union at the university, which has approximately 7,000 members.

Last month, as I recall, Vaknin, along with other students, won the lawsuit they filed against the association at the district court in Haifa, after they exposed its improper conduct in the association's elections. The judge strongly criticized the conduct of the student association and stated that its actions caused a serious injury to the students' right to be elected and accordingly the judge prohibited the association from holding the elections on 18/09/24 as planned.

prevents proper and democratic elections

Oral Vaknin, chairman of the student council: "We are happy about the decision of the honorable court, but in light of the serious failures that occurred in the so-called 2020, 2022 and 2024 elections, we expected that the association would replace the failed election committee that abdicated its duties, and appoint a proper and professional election committee that would fill Her role is faithful, and she may even place at her head an objective retired judge who will manage the election process in a proper, fair and equitable manner. However, we are not surprised that the association did not lift a finger to correct the omissions it itself created.'

In the complaint submitted to the Registrar of Associations, Vaknin reviewed over nine pages the chain of events from 2020 until today, within which, according to him, the management of the association is preventing the existence of proper, free and democratic elections, with the aim of preserving the power of the current management and those whom the management wanted to win.

The bulk of the complaint revolves around the request to conduct an investigation and review of the association's conduct immediately, and to appoint an independent external election committee, which will manage the process of the expected elections in order to ensure that they will be conducted properly, in accordance with the law and regulations, and to prevent interested parties from contaminating and damaging the purity of the elections, as has already been done and as they tried to do as well this year

"Makes millions every year"

"The story here is bigger than student council elections," explains Vaknin. "The Student Association at the University of Haifa is a registered association that generates a turnover of millions every year, and beyond the fact that the students do not receive the services they deserve, the improper and legally questionable conduct of the members of the association's management raises many questions, the answers to which will have to be provided to the students - the regulator and the law authorities."

"For years, many lawsuits and petitions have been submitted to the court against the student association at the Northern University for its conduct, and now the time has come for the Registrar of Associations and the Israel Police to investigate in depth the irregularities that have been going on in the association's secret halls for years."

The Student Council Chamber, according to Vaknin, has become a kind of alternative association over the years: "The services that the association did not provide - we took care to provide, fully voluntarily for the sake of the student body. Now after years of an association that does not work for students and does not hold elections, the time has come to return the student association - to the students!"