Students in Israel at risk

Due to mounting violence in the Middle East, IU has advised four students now studying in Israel to return home, in addition to cancelling this summer's archaeological dig in Tel Bet Shemesh.\nAn advisory group of senior IU international administrators and Jewish Studies faculty reportedly arrived at the decision based on concerns about the latest escalation of violence in Israel.\n"We have been monitoring the situation in the Middle East very closely over the past several months and have been in regular contact with our students there," Richard Stryker, IU director of overseas study, said in a press release. "Our students who want to study in Israel are very passionate about going there, but we are comfortable with the decision made because it has just become too dangerous. Student safety is our primary concern."\nSeveral other American colleges and universities, including the University of California, Duke University and the University of Colorado, have also suspended programs in Israel.\nIn an e-mail sent to students planning to study at Hebrew University next semester, the overseas study department stated that although no permanent decisions have been made, they suggested students postpone their study at Hebrew University and look into alternative study abroad options for next year. The department also said they plan to make a final decision in about a month, but wanted the students to be aware of the likely change in IU policies which would result with IU ending it's formal relationship with Hebrew University for the coming academic year.\nCurrently, three students are involved in academic-year and semester programs for IU credit at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the fourth student is studying at Tel Aviv University. \nThe tentative dates for the archaeological dig in Tel Bet Shemesh were June 16 to July 7, where 25 IU students and religious studies professor James Ackerman were set to uncover remains from the ancient cities of the Canaanites, Philistines and Israelites.\nSophomore Jana Johnston, who attended the dig last summer, said she is upset by the cancellation, and maintained that if she was in Israel, she wouldn't return at the request of the University.\n"The day before we left to go to Israel, a discotheque near Tel Aviv was bombed by terrorists, so the only part where I was ever scared was on the plane leaving the country and I didn't know what I had gotten myself into," Johnston said.\nShe added that once she arrived in Israel, her small fears eroded once she stepped foot on the land.\n"It wasn't scary at all while we were there," she said. "But I don't know about how it is now, really. I'm not there."\nThe day before leaving the dig last summer, a terrorist bomb mutilated a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, an hour away from Tel Bet Shemesh, but Johnston said the group was far enough away that they were physically unaffected.\nSophomore Jonathan Azulay had plans to study at Hebrew University next fall, but from what he has heard, it looks like he will have to find other arrangements.\n"According to what I've been told, the way it sounds is that we won't be studying there in the fall," Azulay said.\nHe said he understands the University's rationale for the decision, but is still disappointed.\n"It's something they have to do, and although I don't like it, I understand it," he said, pointing out that it's definitely a sticky situation, one he wouldn't choose to put his own children in.\n"I want to be there, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be," Azulay said.