Israeli high school students’ massive nationwide protest and one-day strike Jan. 14 over the cancelation of all extramural activities has paid off. Field trips will resume. Quite a few organizations and even political parties have tried to take advantage of this show of force by students. And no wonder. Who wouldn’t want to take credit for such effective action, which resolved a teacher crisis in less than 24 hours — a crisis that the grown-ups hadn’t managed to settle over a period of weeks?
Just as the members of the National Student and Youth Council were careful during their preparations for the strike — refusing all sorts of tempting offers of assistance and insisting on controlling everything and doing it alone — they are now being discreet in declining to reveal the identities of those who could take credit for what the students did. At the end of the day, Israeli youth proved that when something is important to them, they can get things moving in this country, and in an impressive fashion that even adults envy.
