For the good of a young, talented researcher - Haaretz

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Sun., January 13, 2008 Shvat 6, 5768

Israel Time: 02:03 (EST+7)

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For the good of a young, talented researcher

By Ze'ev Sternhell

Tags: Israel, university strike

The university lecturers strike can be seen as a mirror, reflecting the face of Israeli society. One sees in it our national order of priorities, the main features of the dominant economic and social attitudes in Israel, and our political system's power centers.

Those who accuse the public of indifference to higher education's future are mistaken. It is not the public that sets the order of priorities; it is the elites. Nor is it correct to find fault with Finance Ministry officials. It is not the officials alone who determine the goals of our national policies; it is the government. The striking similarity between the economic outlook and interests of treasury officials and the approach of our politicians and their affluent friends creates the impression that these officials have the final say in Israel. The truth is that, for years, the treasury has implemented policies backed to the hilt by all the political and economic elites, including the Labor Party's, with few exceptions.

In 1994, when Yitzhak Rabin decided to end the 74-day university lecturers strike, the Finance Ministry's director of wages capitulated, and, within hours, an agreement was signed. The education budget was also doubled at the time. Rabin knew Israel's future depended on science and culture.

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Times have changed and the seal of approval has been given to a policy whose goal is to reduce to the greatest extent possible the state's involvement in many areas of social responsibility. Three goals lie behind the ruthless cuts in university budgets in recent years and the refusal to prevent the erosion of lecturers wages: to gradually increase the share of the students (the consumers) in bearing the burden of keeping the universities open; to bring about the gradual privatization of Israel's universities and to force them to find research funds from the private sector. Some members of the ruling elite believe the disintegration of both the lecturers labor union and the academic community will only promote the attainment of those goals.

Young people interested in research know they are giving up the chance of enjoying the same standard of living as successful lawyers or businesspeople. They also take for granted the fact that Israeli universities can never pay them a salary equal to that which a first- or second-rate American university can afford to offer.

The hundreds of teaching positions eliminated without a word of protest from the universities prove that this is the number of young people who have left Israel or have given up on research, opting instead for another career. When talented young people give up on a career in basic research, this is a loss to science. When they go overseas to further their careers, this is an incalculable loss for Israeli society.

From the scientific standpoint, it is immaterial whether people from England, France or Israel immigrate to the United States: It is reasonable to assume that their attainments in America will be quicker and more impressive. However, when an Israeli leaves, the impact is painful and grave. People live in Israel not because life is easy here but rather because Israel is important to them. A quarter of Israeli professors could easily find work with top American schools. But they have not left, and the vast majority of them will never leave - because of their sense of personal responsibility for their country's future. This is what their teachers did in periods of austerity and food-rationing.

On the other hand, the neo-liberal economy, which weighs all things only in terms of profit and loss and which regards people merely as suppliers or consumers, is eroding the very basis of our collective existence. The champions of this economic outlook - whether they are in politics, the media or the organizations managing the universities - are the ones who are banishing good people from Israel.

There is a bright side to the strike: The vast majority of the lecturers support the right of students to receive a higher education as a service that the state must supply to the younger generation, while the students support their teachers' just demands for a decent salary. This collaboration is the key to the future: The striking lecturers and the students are the academic community, and the universities belong to them, not to the bureaucrats and not to the politicians.

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