The Student Union factions Yesh and Ḳampus occupied a middle ground in Israeli political culture ... more The Student Union factions Yesh and Ḳampus occupied a middle ground in Israeli political culture in the 1970s. Their vocal call for comprehensive change in Israeli society was reminiscent of the “spirit of ’68,” though it was issued from within the Student Unions, a traditional institutional venue of political activity. The rhetorical and practical approaches of Yesh and Ḳampus contrast with widely-held notions about Israeli Student Unions, organizational frameworks that both scholarly and popular observers have disregarded as ineffectual bodies that are usually subjected to the co-optation of mainstream Israeli political parties. Unlike most Student Union factions at the time, however, Yesh and Ḳampus neither associated with outside parties or groups, nor did they restrict their agendas to issues explicitly relating to students’ interests. Instead, Yesh and Ḳampus worked to expose what they believed to be widespread inequality in Israel, and sponsored both on and off-campus activities aimed at combatting socioeconomic disparities. Yesh and Ḳampus were comprised of broad coalitions of Arab and Jewish Zionists, non-Zionists, and anti-Zionists, and attained a level of electoral support in Student Unions in Haifa and Jerusalem, respectively, that was proportionally much higher than that of contemporaneous far left-wing factions in Israel’s Knesset. In the 1970s, Yesh and Ḳampus demonstrated how traditional institutions like Israeli Universities and their Student Unions could be appropriated as venues in which political activists might openly criticize the sociopolitical status quo, and resist the behavioral conventions and partisan associations of Israel’s mainstream political culture.
The Student Union factions Yesh and Ḳampus occupied a middle ground in Israeli political culture ... more The Student Union factions Yesh and Ḳampus occupied a middle ground in Israeli political culture in the 1970s. Their vocal call for comprehensive change in Israeli society was reminiscent of the “spirit of ’68,” though it was issued from within the Student Unions, a traditional institutional venue of political activity. The rhetorical and practical approaches of Yesh and Ḳampus contrast with widely-held notions about Israeli Student Unions, organizational frameworks that both scholarly and popular observers have disregarded as ineffectual bodies that are usually subjected to the co-optation of mainstream Israeli political parties. Unlike most Student Union factions at the time, however, Yesh and Ḳampus neither associated with outside parties or groups, nor did they restrict their agendas to issues explicitly relating to students’ interests. Instead, Yesh and Ḳampus worked to expose what they believed to be widespread inequality in Israel, and sponsored both on and off-campus activities aimed at combatting socioeconomic disparities. Yesh and Ḳampus were comprised of broad coalitions of Arab and Jewish Zionists, non-Zionists, and anti-Zionists, and attained a level of electoral support in Student Unions in Haifa and Jerusalem, respectively, that was proportionally much higher than that of contemporaneous far left-wing factions in Israel’s Knesset. In the 1970s, Yesh and Ḳampus demonstrated how traditional institutions like Israeli Universities and their Student Unions could be appropriated as venues in which political activists might openly criticize the sociopolitical status quo, and resist the behavioral conventions and partisan associations of Israel’s mainstream political culture.
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