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Message from Prof. Rivka Carmi
President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

December 31, 2008

Dear Friends, 

I write to you at a difficult hour for the city of Beer-Sheva, the Negev and the State of Israel. Since last night, Beer-Sheva has been under attack, with missiles falling around the city.   

This comes after eight years of ongoing attacks on the Negev region. Years in which we believed that we were out of range of the kind of attacks that had so often befallen Sderot and the communities in closer proximity to the Gaza Strip. 

Two of the rockets fell not far from the campus on a kindergarten and a school, both of which were thankfully empty at the time.

Here at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, we have had no choice but to announce the cancelation of classes at least through the end of the week.  We can only hope that we will be able to re-open the University soon.

This decision follows a week in which a number of our students, as well as loved ones of our faculty and staff have been called up for military reserve duty and are now on the front lines, awaiting the government’s decision regarding a ground incursion into Gaza.

After years of providing refuge to our distraught neighbors in the Western Negev, as well as to our colleagues in the north when they were under attack by Hezbollah, we at BGU are suddenly faced with an entirely new reality in which the safety and security of our own faculty, staff, students, and families is now foremost in our minds.

We have committed ourselves to doing what must be done by increasing security, assisting students who are in the military, and bringing long-distance and e-learning options on line.

Furthermore, we are developing a special announcement system that will facilitate immediate and direct contact with students, faculty and staff if other modes of communication break down. We are also providing support to families who have been impacted by the conflict.  

We have hard decisions to make and are strengthened by the knowledge that you, our friends abroad, support and stand by us.

Now more than ever, we have to affirm Israel’s right to exist with secure borders and with the fundamental right to protect our children in the Negev and in all of Israel. The loss of innocent life on both sides is devastating and we all pray that the current operation will quickly achieve its goals and allow genuine peace to take root in the region.

On behalf of the entire BGU community, I want to thank you for your deeply appreciated calls of concern, support and outpouring of affection at this difficult time.  Events are unfolding by the hour and we will be sure to update you as often as possible.

We hope and pray that 2009 will bring a peaceful and permanent resolution to the current conflict and we send our best wishes for a more sound and secure New Year to all of our friends abroad.

Yours in friendship,

              
Prof. Rivka Carmi, M.D.
President, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev