Leaving Tel Aviv
Photo: Yaron Brener
University protest takes to streets
Students, faculty members block Highway 1 with convoy of vehicles headed to Jerusalem in unprecedented demonstration aimed at pressuring Finance Ministry to grant universities funds needed to kick off academic year on schedule
A convoy of vehicles carrying students, university presidents, and academic faculty members made its way to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv on Monday, blocking Highway 1 intermittently and piling excess traffic onto the already rush hour-plagued road.
The demonstration, protesting the Finance Ministry's refusal to hand over funds that the universities have deemed essential to the upcoming academic year, was the first ever to incorporate both students and university leaders. Both groups have threatened that the year's studies would not begin on time if talks with the ministry remained deadlocked.
Vehicle of protest: 'Academia is bankrupt' (Photo: Yaron Brener)
President of Tel Aviv University, Professor Zvi Galil, told reporters he was not optimistic about beginning the year on time. "I fear the system is about to collapse," he said. "The funds at our disposal are insufficient, and calculations show we have less than we had last year."
Galil said the universities had already cut scholarships and the number of teaching assistants employed at universities. "Research departments are still ok, but achievements today are taking place because of funds invested 15 years ago, and won't repeat themselves in 15 years."
National Student Union Chairman Boaz Toporovsky said, "We are on the brink of an election, and this time politicians will have a chance to prove themselves with actions rather than promises.
"I hope the Finance Ministry clerks will receive an order to add funds to higher education. The students have suffered strikes for the past three years and we object to the idea of delaying the academic year."
On Monday representatives from both sides held a round of negotiations after talks had been deadlocked for two weeks. Sources from the ministry told Ynet that the day's meeting had bridged a number of gaps, and that the dispute now centered on a few million dollars.
Ministry representatives said that the debate was focusing on the university president's unwillingness to inform the ministry on the manner in which the universities were spending the budget – whether for research or academic purposes – as the Shochat Committee had recommended.
