By Amir Gilat

HAIFA, July 26—Shalom 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.

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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 naïve 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.