By
Amir Gilat
HAIFA, July 26Shalom
from the University of Haifa,
The
Rocket barrage over Haifa continues and we continue the daily update.
Emergency
Situation Guidelines
Given
the current emergency situation, the University Administration has designed
temporary guidelines permitting employees to work from home. The Vice President
for Administration, Mr. Baruch Marzan, has indicated that preference will be
given to employees caring for young children and employees who live far from the
University.
Employees may work from home on condition that their job does not involve
directly serving the University public, that they are not required to be
physically present in the work place in order to perform their tasks, and that
they have a home computer that can be linked to the University server.
The University Administration emphasizes that permission to work from
home is not granted on a continuous basis but given per diem.
Employees working from home will submit a work plan, accompanied by a
time chart and evidence of output open to examination and assessment, and will
highlight their work hours at home, which may not exceed an individual's normal
work load.
Youngsters
from the North Register for the University Of Haifa from Bomb Shelters
In recent days, many young people from northern Israel have registered
for the coming academic year at the University of Haifa directly from the bomb
shelters and protected rooms where they are staying.
This is the height of the registration period for next academic year, and
many youngsters residents of the north and soldiers serving in various
military units have worried that they would miss out on registration due to
the situation and would lose a whole academic year.
T
The Student Administration at the University, which is operating as usual
despite the situation, is easing the burden for young people in the north that
have registered for the University by permitting them to postpone the advance
first payment of their tuition.
"We
are very aware of the situation currently faced by the young people and have
decided to make every effort in order to facilitate their registration for the
University," said the Rector, Prof. Yossi Ben-Artzi. He emphasized that the
Student Administration at the University of Haifa prepared for registering
candidates while itself operating under the pressure of the missiles, and that
registration for the academic year is continuing on schedule.
University
Researchers Speak on the Situation
Prof.
Niza Nachmias from the School of Political Science: "Unnecessary
to Give Too Much Weight to UN Secretary-General's Anti-Israel Sentiments"
"It was inappropriate for Kofi Annan, United Nations'
Secretary-General, to announce that the deaths of four United Nations soldiers
were deliberately caused by Israel.
Annan
should have investigated the event in depth and dealt with it through
diplomacy," states Prof. Niza Nachmias, expert on international
organizations at the University of Haifa's School of Political Science.
According
to Prof. Nachmias, past experience teaches that the United Nations' Secretary
General will apologize, retract his remarks and claim that they were taken out
of context.
Prof.
Nachmias explains that Annan, who is soon due to retire, feels that he is no
longer relevant and thus allows himself to vent out all his anti-Israel
sentiments. That is the reason that he permits himself to make assertions in a
highly spontaneous manner.
"Not
to worry. His remarks do not need to be taken seriously, and only someone who
wants to make propaganda will make use of them. World leaders and global world
opinion will not be influenced," says Prof. Nachmias, emphasizing that in
her opinion there will be no deterioration in the relations between Israel and
the deceased soldiers' countries.
Dr.
Michael Ben-Gad from the Department of Economics: "In
a war you aim to annihilate your enemy's economy not your wwn"
"Instead
of paying employers for their employees' days off work, there is a need for
finding a special equation to prevent the collapsing of businesses in the
North" says Dr. Michael Ben-Gad from the Department of Economics at the
University of Haifa, who rejects the declaration of a comprehensive 'emergency
situation' over Haifa and the North. He believes that a better solution needs to
be found for all the impaired businesses.
In
his view, such a declaration would presumably allow workers to stay in their
home shelter, and not risk themselves on their ride to work or tarry in
unprotected areas. Such conditions would also permit parents to supervise their
children whose summer camps have been canceled, but there is a price to pay: a
declaration of an emergency situation in the North would bring to a halt a major
part of the economic activities in the North. Factories which are dependent on
Northern suppliers would also have to cut down.
Dr.
Ben-Gad emphasizes that such a move, if followed through, would mean that the
government must pay the wages of workers who hadn't turned up to work,
and to compensate the employers in the future. The government would have to
compensate not only for direct damage caused to them; it would also have to
reimburse them for profit loss.
Dr.
Ben-Gad believes that the state must not allow the comprehensive standstill of
businesses. "There is a more efficient way to cut down the number of
casualties without completely stopping all economic activities in the
North" says Dr. Ben-Gad. This can be done in the form of tax returns making
cash flow available and by that, rewarding businesses that paid all their taxes.
In
his opinion, a declaration of emergency would also pull the rug from under the
accomplishments of the military action so far, given that the halted economy
would present a dangerous precedent and the state would suffer from rocket
barrages in the future. "In a war you aim to annihilate your enemy's
economy not your own", he said.
Professor
Ariel Bendor, from the Faculty of Law: "An
equal distribution of the economic burden on North Israel must be promoted"
"An
all-inclusive imposition of a national emergency situation might impose an
economic burden of billions of NIS on the country's budget." said Prof.
Ariel Bendor, the University of Haifa's dean and the former dean of the Faculty
of Law in the university. On the other hand, he explains that preventing
compensation might cause inequality, in which the residents of north Israel
alone would have to carry the economic burden. "It is necessary to create a
mechanism that would promote, as much as possible, an equal distribution of this
burden on all the population" he noted.
According
to Prof. Bendor, it is the expectation that the government would have to
compensate all damages that contributed to the government's avoidance from
declaring an emergency situation in the areas under attack, first and foremost,
Haifa and the Krayot. It is naοve to anticipate that such decisions should
always be considered in light of pure security considerations.
He
says that the government may have to prompt the Northern civilians to assume a
certain measure of risk in order to help the country avoid an economic crisis
that could, in turn, have serious impact on national security.
"The law states that declaring an emergency situation enables the
Army's high command to give any order necessary for the safekeeping or saving of
human life or property. It includes ordering civilians to remain in certain
places, and prohibition or limitation of schools," explains Prof. Bendor,
"this in addition to the compensation on damaged property.
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"The serious problem would come as a result of other compensations,
such as to employers that could not operate their businesses but they are
committed to pay workers," explains Prof. Bendor, "this, while in the
current situation there is no legal obligation on the state to compensate the
citizens for the damages they suffered."
Unfortunately this confutation, in which Israel reels these days, will
probably not be the last one. Therefore it is appropriate to find better
economic solutions than the ones that exist today, so that important and
sensitive decisions would not have to be considered only within the pressures of
the battle" concluded Prof. Bendor.
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* *
We
will continue to update you tomorrow.
Let
us hope for quiet days,
Amir Gilat is the head of communication
and media relations for the University of Haifa's Department
of External Affairs.
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