My 1st Israeli Protest

As if you thought there were a lot of protests at Berkeley...Israelis love protests/strikes/lock-outs etc.

[I realised that I haven't updated this thing in a really really long time...and that a lot has happened. So as I sit here in cell biology, i'm going to update this bad boy. The updates won't be that great because i'm half listening about EGF receptors, but hey, at least i'm updating.]

Currently, the professors at Tel Aviv University (and high school teachers) are on strike because of low pay by the government. This strike has been going on for 9 weeks. NINE WEEKS! So the Israeli students haven't been in class (at least most of their classes) and are slowing getting their summer vacation taken away....right now they have 1 week. The Israeli medical students MIGHT have their whole year cancelled due to the strike. So in response, the students have started to protest the protest.

I supported their cause today at one of their demonstrations (Dad, you were worried about Berkeley protests...who knew about Israel? ha!)...and chanted things like "Where's histology? We don't know! Where's anatomy? We don't know! Where's the teachers? We don't know! Where's the government? We don't know!" and "No education, No medicine!" (all in Hebrew).

The noise from the demonstrations has been a problem with class - it's disruptive. I have a long story about this....but i'll keep it from the blog for now. Anyways, a lot of people are upset about this....but coming from Cal, where I was locked into Wheeler because of an Palestinian/Israel protest (ironic) during a final - with police arrests, drums, screaming, etc....the noise of clapping and chanting during class is not so bad.

For all the Israeli students missing out on their educations, I hope this gets resolved soon.