Israeli Student Riot

It is all over. I am fine. No one I know got hurt. Only one person I know is missing, but that is because he was stupid enough to go partake in the riot.

Israeli students protest in Jerusalem today about tuition increases. Apparently it tripled in price this year. I don't know all the details. What I do know is that different parts of town were shut down do to the protests. In some areas riots broke out. One way the police "control" "coral" them is by pushing them back to where they should be and apparently at the beginning of the day some people fell down and were severely injured.

Then tonight on my way home from Young Adults we found out that they were stationed right out side the Hostel and one of the guys lives in the building next to mine. So we walked home and then we got close and we could see this massive group of people. He escorted another girl to his place since she would be unable now to catch her bus since the street was closed. I went up stairs and watched. The people in blue are the normal police. They provided the general barrier by the sidewalk and the students sitting in the street. Then there is are the police you don't mess with and they are in grey/green. They went in and pulled the students out from sitting down. When I was watching it took waves of this to get the students out of the middle of the street. Then they pushed them up to the sidewalk. At which point the grey/green officers held the line and the blue police backed up. Then with in 10-15mins it started to rain and everyone slowly left.

The interesting thing to me was how the police went in. When some of them were making the wall, they linked arms and walked through. But they worked together. It was not just one person going in and taking on the crowd. They did it as a team. And even though it is not opinion of most people here I think. I have a great respect and honor for these police men and women. Something just stirred inside me as I was watching it. My western friends are just hoping that the USA papers don't spin to make the Israeli police look bad. But we will see what happens.