Israel’s university students have been waging a determined battle against tuition hikes for over a month. Activists and rabbis have weighed in on the justice of the struggle.
The students raised the bar yet again Wednesday, graduating from strikes, protests and road-blockings to forcing their way into a meeting of the Shochat Committee, the body appointed by the Knesset to suggest university reforms, where they demanded that the head of the committee resign.
Since the strike began, classes have been cancelled. Attempts by the administration to break the strike were thwarted by peer pressure on students considering attending and physical coercion, according to students.
Activist Liron Zeidin, a student leader of the ‘Ta Katom’ (Orange Cell) protest group established prior to the Disengagement, published an op-ed Wednesday asking “What is the difference between a red student and an orange student?” (Orange was the color associated with the Gush Katif anti-expulsion protests and red is the color chosen by the student movement.)
Zeidin says the student movement is succeeding in its aims because those who disagree with various methods, such as road-blocking, occupy their time finding other ways to protest instead of condemning those blocking roads.
“The present student struggle has no voices condemning road-blocking or scuffling with police, despite the fact that there are a significant number of students that oppose these methods,” he writes. “You do not hear people lamenting, ‘you hooligans are ruining the image of our struggle before the media.’ During our struggle, we were condemned by our own camp for doing so much as tying orange ribbons on cars without permission from the owners. We were told that ‘only love will be victorious.’”
The student activist concludes that the lesson that must be learned from the student struggle is that the necessary ingredients for a winning struggle are determination and unity around an end goal, if not the means to reach it.
Rabbis have been asked by their students whether they were permitted to either break the strike or join in the more forceful actions being coordinated by the leadership.
Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan Yaakov Ariel says it is unethical to break the strike. During the 2005 Disengagement, he instructed his students not to take part in blocking roads.
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, rabbi of the Samaria town of Har Bracha and head of the Hesder Yeshiva there supported roadblocks when opposing the Disengagement, but published a statement last week that it is “permitted and fitting” to break the student strike.
“This strike has already passed bearable boundaries,” the rabbi wrote in response to student queries. “Out of concern that tuition may be raised by a few thousands shekels, it is fitting to strike for a day, or two days, to hold a protest – but to strike for so long, to hold violent demonstrations and block roads surpasses all proportionality. If the government’s position is wrong in your eyes – vote for a different government in the next elections.
“It is proper to hold protest about the expulsion of Jews, the abandoning of security, the abandonment of the reservists – but not about a few thousand shekels a year.”
Rabbi Melamed pointed to the slashes in stipends for families with many children, asking why the students did not demonstrate for “social justice” at that juncture.
The rabbi also said he suspects that the bodies funding and encouraging the student protests are from the extreme left, whose power lies in the social science departments of the universities – which stand to lose funding and power due to the Shochat Committee.
Asked specifically whether a student was permitted ethically to separate from the public and break the strike by going to class, Rabbi Melamed answered: “The student leaders were not elected to decide on a prolonged strike. They were elected to organize the cafeteria, the price of copies and to coordinate the dates of exams…There was no serious discussion regarding the strike, with opposing voices heard…therefore, do not take part in it and every effort should be made to bring an end to it.”