Students give Netanyahu 'wake-up call'
Dozens show up at PM's home at 6:30 am with roosters, megaphones in protest of haredi stipends
Students in Israel have decided to fight against a bill allotting millions in state funds to yeshiva students, and dozens attending the Hebrew University in Jerusalem showed up in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence at 6:30 am Wednesday.
Protestors carried signs saying, "Good morning Bibi, the students are on the street", and "Bibi wake up, we're worth more". The chairman of Tel Aviv University's Student Union, Ran Livne, was detained for leading an illegal protest.
"We won't stop fighting until students receive the same benefits as yeshiva students. Students of medicine and economics do not contribute less than yeshiva students," Livne said.
Releasing the roosters (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
A slew of protests have been planned for Wednesday. Bar Ilan University students plan to block Highway 4 at noon, and Hebrew University students plan to block the entrance to Maale Adumim. Tel Hai College students have planned a march and Ben Gurion students will strike for one hour.
At 4 pm, students studying at Herzliya's Interdisciplinary Center, Netanya College, and Rishon Lezion College of Management plan to join the fight by holding a "rondo", or a parade of slow-moving cars, which will proceed south from Herzliya's Kfar Shmaryahu junction.
'Government trampling entire public'
Chairman of the Tel Hai College Student Union, Aviad Rosenfeld, said the students were fighting for equality. "Our battle is not with the haredi sector, but rather against an inequitable budget according to the High Court of Justice," he said. "It is our duty as students to demand democratic equality in our country."
Chairman of the IDC's Student Union, Yair Itzhar-Belachovsky, agreed. "The students are an entire public that works, pays taxes, serves in the reserves, volunteers in the community, and contributes to the state. Despite this, the government is choosing, along with all of its coalition members, to turn its back on this public and trample it," he said.
"We will not lend a hand to this, and we will not be silent until justice is done and the government of Israel remedies this perversion, not only by distributing the load, but also by giving benefits to those who shoulder it."
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