Attack on coexistence

Letters

Editor: Any suicide bomb in a city is appalling. However, the bombing of a bus en route to the Haifa University in a city such as Haifa requires some particular assessment. Haifa is the best example in Israel of an integrated society in which Arabs and Jews live peacefully together, sharing the same services. For example, if you visit a hospital you will find that patients, doctors, nurses and support staff are Jewish and Arab. If you take a bus, the driver is likely to be an Arab, as was the case in this latest bombing, and some of the passengers too.

Haifa University has among its 14,000 students a high percentage of Arab students and faculty, from both the Muslim and Christian communities. The university also has several cultural facilities open to the public, such as museums and galleries and the multilingual library is used by the general public, as well as members of the university, including many groups of children, Arab as well as Jewish.

I am informed by the university that three of our students are among the injured passengers, one very seriously wounded. A new immigrant from Russia, who worked as a security guard at the university, was killed on his way to work.

To strike at a bus bringing such a population to and from a university such as this, one which is a true symbol of coexistence and a centre at which future leaders of the Arab community are educated, is more than an expression of calculated hatred. It is an attack on the idea of coexistence itself.

Terri Davis
Ottawa executive director
Canadian Friends of Haifa University

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