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Israeli campus of China’s UIBE to suspend new student enrolments due to Gaza war
- Travel restrictions mean the university can’t fulfil ‘very basic requirement’ of hosting academics from China, vice-president of operations says
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The Israeli campus of China’s University of Business and Economics says it will suspend new student enrolments this autumn due to difficulties posed by the ongoing Gaza war.
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UIBE-Israel is the only Chinese satellite campus in Israel. Members of its Chinese faculty, who make up nearly half of the teaching staff, have been unable to travel to Israel as it remains at war with Hamas and faces a burgeoning regional conflict.
“Our licence 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.
“We are not closing, we are basically postponing now.”
Recent strikes on Israel by Iran and the Houthis, as well as exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israel Defence Forces in Israel’s north, have inflamed already heightened tensions.
Israeli reports on Sunday suggested that Israel expects a response from Iran in the coming days in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, for which Israel has not claimed responsibility.
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