Violent demonstrations that pit Arabs against Jews…

Violent demonstrations that pit Arabs against Jews and university administrators break out in April at the University of Haifa after several relatively peaceful years for student groups on Israel's university campuses.

The troubles soon spread to other campuses (and will continue for several months).

Arab students, who account for eighteen percent of Haifa's enrollment, claim that the university administration had violated their right of free speech and had refused to permit the teaching of some courses in Arabic rather than Hebrew, even though Arabic was one of the nation's official languages.

Jewish students accused Arab politicians, and particularly those in the Communist Party, of inciting the demonstrations.