Last update - 00:00 03/05/2007
Universities: Striking students risk losing credits for semester
By Tamara Traubmann and Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondents
The committee of university heads demanded Thursday that students cease their strike and return to classes on Sunday, stating that students that do not do so risk losing their credits for the current semester.
The universities instructed their lecturers to teach on Sunday "even if only one student shows up."
"The party is over," said Thursday Professor Moshe Kaveh, chairman of the committee of university heads, "the students can demonstrate wherever they please, but right now we want to salvage what is left of this semester." According to Kaveh, the continuation of the strike would cause "irreversible damage."
The leaders of the student strike responded by stating that the students will continue striking and, if need be, block the entrances to university campuses.
The committee of university heads announced Thursday that the current university academic semester will be extended by two weeks as a result of the student strike. The university heads called on all students to return to classes.
Students and police clashed Wednesday as a protest at the Tel Aviv University campus overflowed into the streets and neighboring Ayalon Highway, with mixed reports of excessive force and violence on the part of riot police.
The demonstration began as a rally on the university campus. For more than an hour, protesters blocked the Lebanon and Einstein street junction next to the campus, burning tires. Hundreds of police officers lined up to stop the students from marching through the rest of Ramat Aviv. But later, a few hundred students marched from the other side of the campus onto the Ayalon Highway.
In light of the violent clashes that erupted at student demonstrations last week, Tel Aviv district police tried to demonstrate restraint. Over several hours of protests, 32 students were detained for disorderly conduct and three police officers were hospitalized with minor injuries.
Earlier in the week, the police recommended student leaders apply for a permit to hold Wednesday's demonstration, which they pledged to grant. Police would then have blocked streets in Ramat Aviv for the students.
However, police say student organizers refused to apply for a permit and promised the demonstration would not leave campus grounds. In the morning, about 3,000 students gathered by the junction, eventually spilling out into the streets around 1 P.M. Police tried not to confront demonstrators, although they decided to prevent them from advancing westward from the junction or eastward toward Ayalon. Even when students succeeded in circumventing police barriers and blocking a nearby exit ramp, police refrained from using force to remove them. The road remained blocked for several hours.
Nathaniel Isaac, vice chairman of the Jezreel Valley College student union, said that he was beaten by police. "They broke our cameras?we were walking down Rokach Street towards the Ayalon while singing 'no to violence,' but the police jumped us and beat us. My trousers are covered with the blood of a student that had his head split open. We wanted to get to an ambulance for treatment, but [the police] wouldn't let us pass."
Tel Aviv District Police Commander David Tzur, who was present at the demonstration, said that "we respect the demonstrators' desire to protest, but we won't tolerate violence and traffic disruptions. For hours we played cat and mouse with them in an attempt to refrain from using violence."