All eyes are turned to the Labor Court, which is expected to determine whether to issue back-to-work orders to striking secondary-school teachers. The ruling has been postponed until Monday.
The Local Government Union asked the court to order the some 34,000 striking junior high school and high school teachers back to work. The strike is now three and a half weeks old, and attempts to bridge the gaps between the sides show no signs of succeeding.
Public support for the teachers among parents and students appears to be growing. In the Galilee city Carmiel, students are protesting on behalf of their teachers and "better education." The National Students Association has come out in favor of the teachers as well.
One of Israel's two teachers' unions, known as Irgun HaMorim, is striking. The other one, the larger Histadrut, decided just today (Sunday) to join in with various measures, which have not yet been specified.
Ran Erez, the head of the Irgun, has said that the strikers demand higher salaries, fewer students in each class, and more school hours.
The Local Government Union was originally a supporter of the strike, but now has asked for the back-to-work orders. The Irgun Teachers Union has asked the Labor Court to disqualify the request, claiming it was submitted without the proper authorization from its own institutions. Some 1,000 teachers have said that they will quit their jobs if they are ordered to go back to work under the present conditions.
Later this week, the Irgun plans to break the Guinness record for the largest class in the world, with 3,000 teachers teaching one class simultaneously. The event will take place on Thursday at 11 AM at the Ganei Yehoshua park in north Tel Aviv.
Some 50 teachers are holding a protest vigil outside the Labor Court in Jerusalem, as the deliberations inside continue. Dozens of other teachers are demonstrating at seven major intersections in the Be'er Sheva-Ofakim area in the Negev, calling on supporters to honk as they pass by.
"Our educational system is in danger, because our governments, for the last 15 years, don't care," Erez has repeated on countless occasions over the past several weeks. "It will affect our children, and in the end, it will endanger the whole country... They pay us less than we pay our babysitters, and then they come to us with complaints: Why didn't you cover all the material for the matriculation exams? The reason is simple: Not because we went skiing in Switzerland, but because they crammed 40 students into a class and cut down on teaching hours!"
Regarding the cancellation of Torah study caused by the teachers' strike, some rabbis have said that the obligation to teach Torah to the children is incumbent upon parents, and that teachers are only their "agents." If the wages are not sufficient, the "agents" are free to leave and find other jobs, leaving the parents with the obligation to either find other teachers - or join the fight for the teachers' rights to receive proper remuneration.
Dozens of teachers from the Ort High School in the southern city of Arad plan to march for three days to Jerusalem, demanding improved wages and national education. The teachers plan to join the protest tent in the Rose Garden in the capital on Wednesday evening.
Likud MK Gideon Saar says that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert must get involved. "It's about time that Olmert stop watching this crisis from the side and get out of his apathy," Saar said.