43 Years to the Establishment of the Faculty of Medicine in the Negev
Shvarts, S.
Harefuah 156(6): 390-393
2017
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-7768 PMID: 28661106 Document Number: 693477
On March 21, 1973, Israel's Council of Higher Education (CHE) was convened by Yigal Alon, the Council's chair and the Minister of Education, to vote on whether to approve a proposal to establish a school of medicine in the Negev. In the preliminary discussion, Avraham Harman, the president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem turned to Professor Moshe Prywes, the president of Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and commented: "Be assured, a school of medicine in Beer Sheva won't pass." At the close of the discussion, the twenty members of the CHE were asked to vote. The vote was a tie - 8 in favor, 8 against and 3 refrained. According to the CHE charter, the chairperson was required to break the tie. The minister - Yigal Alon, raised his hand in favor. Thus, by a bare voice, it was decided to establish a medical school in the Negev. This paper describes the processes that culminated in the approval of a school of medicine by the Council of Higher Education in March 1973. It presents the various personalities, agents, bodies and institutions that played a role in this process and their relative weights in the ultimate decision to establish a school of medicine in the Negev.