HAIFA, August 21, 2006 (WAFA)- An Israeli HR organization hailed Monday a ruling of a court saying that Haifa University must halt housing advantages for Israeli Army veterans.

Haaretz daily said that Haifa District Court has ruled that Haifa University's dormitory application process, which gives preference to Israeli army veterans, is discriminatory against Arab students.

The university's policy of requiring dormitory applicants to have completed military service in the Israeli Army excludes most Arab applicants.

The precedent-setting verdict was handed down Thursday by Judge Ron Sokol, following a petition submitted by Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel - together with three female Arab students.

Last year, the university denied the three women's requests for rooms in university dormitories, despite their difficult economic straits and the low frequency with which public transportation reaches their respective home villages.

The university decides which students will receive rooms in the dormitories based on a list of criteria including socio-economic status and academic achievements.

Haaretz has published in the past, 40 percent of the points required to fulfill the criteria can be garnered by having completed military service.

The court accepted the claims made by Adalah and the students, who said that the military service requirement creates a discrimination against the Arab students, and ordered the university to abolish it.

Adalah lawyer Sawsan Zaher said this marked the first time that the courts have disqualified the use of military service as a criterion for granting benefits, a common practice among institutions of higher learning, employers and housing managers.

"The ruling is likely to have ramifications on other universities who make use of military criterion," Zaher said.

She noted that Adalah will made use of the court's ruling in its current battle in the Israeli High Court against the Israel Lands Administration's practice of using military service criterion when distributing plots of land.

Haaretz said this is also the first time a court ruled Haifa University discriminates against Israeli Arab students following years in which discrimination claims had been leveled at the institution.

E.B. (15:00 P) (12:00 GMT)