JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli students are protesting a bill that would resume stipends for full-time yeshiva students.
In addition to protests at colleges and universities across the country, students sent protest letters and faxes to the office of Moshe Gafni, the Shas Party lawmaker who initiated the proposal. The letters sarcastically requested that the students be registered as yeshiva students in time for the bill’s passage, Ynet reported.
The "Free Israel" movement is set to put up stands in Jerusalem where secular students can sign a petition reading "I hereby declare that in exchange for monthly stipends and an exemption from army service, I will sit in Torah’s tent," Ynet reported.
Early Wednesday morning, protesting students from Hebrew University in Jerusalem released roosters and shouted into megaphones in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence as a "wake-up call" to provide university students with the same benefits as yeshiva students.
