A group of professors demonstrated outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s house in Jerusalem on Saturday night, warning that the semester will be cancelled in one week if negotiations between the senior academic staff and the Finance Ministry do not succeed.  Professors called on Olmert to intervene and push for serious negotiations. 

Professor Roni Elenblum of Hebrew University spoke at the event, and warned that the cancellation of the semester would have serious economic consequences.  Students would lose a year, he said, 4,500 lecturers would suffer damages as well, and many of those who wish to begin learning in university next year would be unable to do so.  He accused the Finance Ministry of making insulting offers to lecturers and destroying academics in Israel.