Chinese university campus in Israel to halt new student enrollments

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - A Chinese university will suspend new student enrollments this autumn at its campus in Israel amid war in the Gaza Strip.

The University of Business and Economics (UIBE) is facing “difficulties posed” by the war in Gaza, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

“Our license requires us to have a substantial amount of faculty members from China, from UIBE-Beijing. And due to the war restrictions of travelling from China to Israel … we couldn’t fulfil the very basic requirement of (hosting) academics from China,” said Netanel Vaknin, vice-president of operations at UIBE-Israel.

UIBE runs its main campus in Beijing.

Vaknin added: “We are not closing, we are basically postponing now.”

This has been the only satellite campus of any Chinese university in Israel since 2021.

The enrollment suspension has also been caused by the fact that Chinese faculty have been unable to travel to Israel due to the ongoing war in Gaza, which has now entered its 11th month since Oct. 7 of last year.

However, Vaknin said the suspension of new student enrollments at the Chinese university's Israeli campus is "unrelated to political relations between Israel and China."

Bilateral relations between Tel Aviv and Beijing have seen a rocky time since the war on Gaza began after Hamas incursion in southern Israel, which resulted in some 1,200 deaths, according to Israeli officials.

Beijing has emphasized a two-state solution, hosted Palestinian factions for unity talks, and also condemned the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran’s capital.

While bilateral trade slowed last year, Vaknin, however, said: “These last 10 months actually emphasized a huge difference between our country’s values to China’s values.”

“People in Israel are changing their mind from [relations based on] shared values to shared interests,” he said.

A think that focuses on relations with China, the Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership, known by its acronym SIGNAL Group, has also faced difficulties in its programs due to the war, according to the report.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last October by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 92,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.