Technion breaks ranks

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
The Technion Student Union announced Tuesday that the strike at the prestigious technical college would end Wednesday, and called on students to return to their studies. This is the first significant reaction to growing resentment among students of the strike that has shut down university studies for nearly three weeks. The decision drew fire from the National Union of Israeli Students, the largest national student union in Israel, which accused the Technion union of "breaking the united front of the struggle." The NUIS claimed a poll conducted among Technion students showed that 70 percent supported continuing the strike. But Technion union representatives said the continuing strike was harming the students, who had already missed a great deal of study time during and after the Second Lebanon War. In all Israel's universities, and most of its colleges, the strike will continue Wednesday as planned. Meanwhile, in a continuation of the ongoing high school teachers' strike, the Secondary School Teachers' Organization announced that on Wednesday it would shut down all junior high schools - grades 7 to 9 - throughout the country. On Tuesday, the SSTO strike hit junior high and high schools in the center of the country. All activities related to matriculation exams, including the exams themselves, preparation courses and special marathon study sessions, will take place as planned following a National Labor Court ruling which stated that the strike could not affect the timely completion of matriculation exams.