One of the widespread claims in the Likud's creation of the Middle East class is that the college revolution - which has reduced inequality in access to higher education and thus opened a channel for Mizrahim - is attributed to the left, and more precisely, to the second Rabin government and then-Education Minister Prof. Amnon Rubin .

Last week I showed here ("The University and the Eastern Problem", 23.01.2020) how the University's policy in the 1970s worked to block Mizrahim from obtaining a college degree. In their response to the articles ("Diversity is a Condition for Academic Excellence", 27.01.2020), the Rector of the Hebrew University, Prof. Barak Medina and Michal Barak, Head of Unit for Promoting Diversity and Multiculturalism, did not deny the argument I presented about closing the most important path of Mizrahim by their university predecessors But emphasized that it is not the Likud, but the law of the colleges that was enacted by the Rabin government, which has caused the historic turnaround.

This is a very partial presentation of the process, and it is worth explaining why it was the Likud that broke the academic road that was facing the Mizrahim for integration into Israeli society.
Prof. Rubinstein worked focussed on solving an absurd situation that developed in Israel in the 1990s: young people who were not admitted to law studies at universities in Israel were admitted to prestigious universities abroad. The universities set a high acceptance level without regard to any factor, not even the academic one. The university cartel "to enable the operation of law colleges, and thanks to its struggle, all colleges were actually allowed to grant their graduates a bachelor's degree.

It was indeed a first leg, and blessed, but in order for the college revolution to fulfill its social purpose of opening higher education to new groups, the Likud had to assemble the remaining three legs of the table.

Limor Livnat led the major strategic move. Under her position as Minister of Education from 2006 to 2001, she served as Chair of the Council for Higher Education (MRL), which, together with the Planning and Budgeting Committee, controls all academic institutions in Israel - universities and colleges, private and public. The representation of colleges in the MLA, thereby reducing the influence of university representatives. In the opinion of all the experts in higher education, this was a "revolution in the academic world", because Livnat ensured that the colleges received both proper representation and budgeting by the Fellowship, thus ensuring the social interests that they expressed where higher education policy was set.

At that time, about half of the students in Israel went to other non-university colleges and institutions. However, only two representatives represented them on a 24-member council. Student Union Chair Guy Kellner explained that "the MLA professors are demonstrating thought rigidity." In front of the Hebrew University President, Prof. Menachem Magidor, accused the Minister of Education of "hijacking" and explained that "it is desirable that the Fellowship members should be renowned in the academic field as has been the case so far", that is, to leave full control of the universities.

Israel's economic growth in recent decades, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is not detached from the dramatic changes that have occurred in the colleges. Dr. Adi Brender of the Bank of Israel, for example, links what he calls the "miracle of employment of the last few decades" to the college revolution. The Bank of Israel claims that this revolution has improved human capital in Israel and allowed many more people to acquire education, and consequently to integrate into the modern labor market. Dan Ben David of Tel Aviv University explains that, thanks to the college revolution, Israel settled at the pinnacle of the world's most educated countries, all because of a much larger supply of highly educated workers, relatively easy for them to integrate into the labor market, which contributed to a sharp surge in Israel's employment rates.

The breakthrough in the higher education system was realized thanks to the stubborn struggle of Limor Livnat and Sylvan Shalom, who is responsible for opening the Faculty of Medicine in Safed, as well as Yigal Cohen Orgad, who led the opening of the University of Ariel. The Likud was the one who resolutely and successfully led the breakout of the siege against Mizrahim in the academy.

Dr. Uri Cohen is a senior lecturer in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University