The National Union of Israeli Students has officially called off the student strike, with their executive board voting 62% in favor of the compromise offered by the Israeli Prime Minister's office. It took some time to actually vote, as no matter where the board tried to meet, they met throngs of rank-and-file students who urged them to vote to continue the strike. Arutz Sheva reports on the details of the compromise:
Tuition fees will be frozen for one year and the findings of the Shochat Committee will not be presented to the government for approval until first being discussed with representatives of the student union. In addition, the government will return billions of shekels to higher education institutions over a four-year period in what is tantamount to restoration of budget cuts over the past several years. [Full article here]
While the students didn't get everything they wanted, they did get a lot of it. Restored funding, a tuition freeze and a say in the Shochat recommendations. I think it's pretty clear that Israel's students would have gotten none of that had they simply played by the rules and "lobbied" the government. Direct action gets the goods, folks! The student union has shown the government and the world that it won't be pushed around. I for one will be drinking to the success of the Israeli students tonight.
However, questions remain, particularly in regards to how the decision to call off the strike was made. We know that plenty of students rallied to tell the executive committee to continue the strike, but what was the overall sentiment of the union's rank-and-file? I'd also like to know the process of getting chosen to serve on that committee. Finding that out is rather tough when one doesn't know Hebrew...
The Chronicle of Higher Education has a few more details about what transpired. It's subscription-only, so I've reposted the article below.
