Tamir (L) at Finance Committee meeting
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Minister Tamir on expected university strike: Treasury dragging its feet
Education minister tells Knesset Finance Committee ' it will be a disaster if the academic year does not open on schedule, accuses Treasury of stalling negotiations
Addressing the expected strike at Israel's universities, Education Minister Yuli Tamir told a Knesset Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday that "it will be a disaster if the academic year does not open on schedule."
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Yaheli Moran Zelikovitch
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
Tamir accused the Treasury of "dragging its feet" in the negotiations with the Higher Education's Planning and Budgeting Committee on the budget for Israel's institutions of higher learning.
On Tuesday the sides met once again in an attempt to bridge the financial gaps currently prohibiting the year from kicking off on schedule, after nearly two weeks of stalemate in talks.
Representatives of the Council of University Presidents left the meeting just an hour after it started, claiming the talks had reached a deadlock, but the talks between Treasury officials and members of the Higher Education's Planning and Budgeting Committee continued without them.
The officials agreed to involve Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On in the negotiations, with each side blaming the other for the stalemate.
The Treasury claimed that the university heads have increased their financial demands, while a representative for the Budgeting Committee said the Treasury introduced "new and surprising demands" that do not appear in the Shochat Commission Report.
"The Treasury apparently planned in advance to stifle the negotiations," the Budgeting Committee rep said, "they are not willing to give the students the benefits they are entitled to."
In response to Tamir's accusations, the Finance Ministry released an announcement calling her a "hypocrite."
"She was not present at any of those talks. She is the one that signed the Shohat Committee's report and is not honoring her own decisions," the statement continued.
The Shochat Commission was established in November 2006 as a public committee meant to examine the state of higher education in Israel.
The university heads are threatening to delay the opening of the academic year, scheduled to begin next week, claiming the universities cannot operate under the existing budget. They are demanding an additional NIS 480 million ($127 million).
