"International Student Movement"

These actions really don't seem to mirror others form the so called "arab spring", but rather arise from elements of bourgeiose society that are fed up with the Israeli governments inability to leverage its aparthied politics to their advantage. Israel is an apartheid state that established a system of exploitation and appropriation to provide Israelis with a decent lifestyle. These protests never mentioned or called for an end to the prolonged political and military occupation of Palestine. The National Union of Israeli Students is a zionist (apparently) entity that equates the repression of kurds (which is obviously terrible) with the conditions in Gaza, the worlds largest open air prison.

[The Union attracted international attention in 2010 when its president, Boaz Torporovsky, announced a plan to send a Kurdish Freedom Flotilla "to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the Kurds ofTurkey."^[3] Torporovsky describes the plan as a reaction to the Free Gaza flotillas. He told a reporter that, "There’s a lot of hypocrisy in the world. Turkey, which leads the campaign against Israel and makes all sorts of threats, is the same Turkey that carried out a holocaust and murdered an entire nation of Armenians, and oppresses a minority larger than the Palestinians – the Kurds – who deserve a state, who havedemanded a state for longer than the State of Israel has existed."]

It is clear that there are oppressed minorities in several countries, many of which face terrible conditions. However, using this to justify the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the settlements in the West Bank, or the seige on Gaza is inhuman and is a slap in the face to any sense of solidarity.

Where is the solidarity to students in Gaza? in the West Bank? to the youth in the refugee camps that have no access to education and face death on a daily basis? Or the millions of displaced peoples who struggle to find a living in a land that isn't their home? Where is the recognition that the lifestyle of Israelis relied on systemic oppression, expliotation of free/cheap Palestinian labor, and the establishment of arab israelis as second class citizens in Israel? Please, if you are going to ask people to express solidarity with the NUIS, no what they are about in the first place. Better yet, know where these protests came from in the first place: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/ajl160811.html

[ The "tent protests" did not begin in the sectors most affected by economic dysfunction -- not in the ramshackle population centers of the Negev, like Sderot, nor in destitute and immigrant-rich south Tel Aviv, but in the city's affluent north, by those who had gone to Hebrew University and Ben-Gurion University, the seminaries of the country's elite, those who had done the requisite military service, the children of the bourgeoisie or the declining bourgeoisie, who had expected a smooth ride into an affluent future and are now colliding with the debris of the shattered Israeli social compact.]

If the NUIS wants solidarity, the NUIS should express solidarity with the students and youth in occupied Palestine and call for the end of the apartheid state, a system which is clearly more vile and disgusting than any amount of cuts they could face. Palestinians have had their lands stolen, their wealth approporated, and thier society dismantled by the zionist aparthied state. Many of them have no formal education. Youth are at a considerable risk. Unemployment in occupied Palestine is over 50%. Youth in Gaza are lucky to survive until their 15th birthday between the living conditions (no sewege treatment or fresh water) and the regulat raids (which have largely targetted women and children).

We can't just support anything and everything that pops up on the radar because it is similar to the work we do. We should know more about its political context and makeup. These protests are about revamping the Israeli state to prevent cuts, a process which would require expanding exploitation of Palestinians and indigenous peoples who have been the main sources of state revenue (free/cheap labor) for years. I do not support that and I don't think anyone else should either.

NUIS needs to take a stand against the apartheid nature of the zionist state before we could be in solidarity with them. Otherwise we'd sacrifice our solidarity with Palestinians in order to be in solidarity with Iraelis while the Palestinians are the population that is most oppressed. Death through systemic, cultural, and military means, a reality faced on a daily basis by Palestinian youth, far exceeds the oppression brought by neoliberal reforms in a capitalist state, especially when the political and economic basis for that state relies on these tactics to survive. Lets talk aobut the real questions faced by youth in Palestine (both in Israel and the occupied territories) and how the war and occupation perpetuated by the zionist state is much more of a threat than meager budget cuts. Lets talk about how real solidarity between youth and students in the region can be a serious step to ending aparthied AND rebuilding a society that serves the people not business.

Interested in hearing others thoughts on this issue.

Wes Strong, USA, CT