The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Technion, Tel Aviv University, the University of Haifa, the Weizmann Institute and the Open University academics declared labor disputes on last weeks to prepare for a possible strike in against the far-right government. Bar-Ilan University staff is advancing similar moves as well.

“Academia stands at the forefront of the struggle to preserve democracy and calls on other organizations in the public and private sectors to prepare for the shutdown of the economy if the government dares to disobey the law and the ruling of the High Court of Justice,” the academia protest movement said on Wednesday.

In addition, over 1100 Israeli, Jewish and Palestinian academics and public figures have signed an open letter drawing a direct link between the far-right government’s judicial overhaul and the occupation of Palestinian territories, calling on North America’s Jewish community to end its silence.

In the open letter called “The Elephant in the Room”, Israeli, Jewish and Palestinian academics and public figures called for protesters and North American Jewish groups to acknowledge the connection between the judicial coup and Israel’s occupation of Palestine. According the open letter, “Palestinian people lack almost all basic rights, including the right to vote and protest. They face constant violence: this year alone, Israeli forces have killed

over 190 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and demolished over 590 structures. Settler vigilantes burn, loot, and kill with impunity.”

“In this moment of urgency and also possibility for change, we call on leaders of North American Jewry – foundation leaders, scholars, rabbis, educators – to

Support the Israeli protest movement, yet call on it to embrace equality for Jews and Palestinians within the Green Line and in the OPT.  Support human rights organizations which defend Palestinians and provide real-time information on the lived reality of occupation and apartheid. Commit to overhaul educational norms and curricula for Jewish children and youth in order to provide a more honest appraisal of Israel’s past and present. Demand from elected leaders in the United States that they help end the occupation, restrict American military aid from being used in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and end Israeli impunity in the UN and other international organizations.”

More on the open letter:

https://sites.google.com/view/israel-elephant-in-the-room/home