They Weren't Mad at Us

Monday morning, we noticed a lot of traffic in front of the Consulate, and several police vans had even taken some of our very limited parking on the Independence Park side of Agron Road. I asked one of our guards what was going on, and she told me a few thousand university students were down the road protesting at Prime Minister Olmert's residence over proposed tuition hikes (from 10,000 shekels, or about $2457, per year, to 15,000 shekels, or about $3685, per year). She said the police were not allowing them to move, so I went on inside to work.

At lunchtime, I was sitting with M and some other friends from work in the garden outside our little cafeteria (eating some yummy homemade sweet potato ravioli made by Netta, who runs the cafeteria) when we heard some chanting and yelling. We could see that at least 10 buses were parked in front of the Consulate, and protesters were chanting and carrying signs. I asked Netta what they were saying and she said they were chanting (The government is f*cked. There is no future without education." So we all ran up to the third floor of the Lazarist Building so we could get a better view (we have a wall around the Consulate so we couldn't really see them).

Once we determined that they were in fact the students protesting tuition hikes and not protesting against the US, I went out front with one of our security guys to get a picture. At that point, they were yelling that Israel should be MORE like the US, which pays (!) for students' educations. Are they kidding? Have they SEEN my student loan debt??




Student Protesters in Independence Park