The National Union of Israeli Students (Hebrew: התאחדות הסטודנטים בישראל, Arabic: إتحاد الطلاب في إسرائيل) is the national representative body of university students in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

Members

The Union is an umbrella organization that unites local student union

Students' union

A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...

s from different universities

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 and college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

s in Israel. Among its members are: Student unions of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...

, Ben Gurion University, Haifa University, The Technion, Tel-Aviv-Jaffa Academic College, The Arab Academic College for Education in Israel - Haifa and more.

Goals and activities

The Union is active in a variety of areas. Some of its official goals are: representing all of the students in Israel, empowering of the students in Israel, Support of Education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 and higher education

Higher education

Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

 in Israel, Empowering of people who live in the periphery of Israel, empowering of people of low socio-economic status, increase of social activism among students, democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

, transparency

Transparency (social)

Transparency is a general quality. It is implemented by a set of policies, practices and procedures that allow citizens to have accessibility, usability, utility, understandability, informativeness and auditability of information and process held by centers of authority...

, empowering of different student unions in Israel, relations with students and students organizations abroad, promotion of research, promotion of human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, promotion and empowering of Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 students in israel, Gender equality

Gender equality

Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...

 and more.

The Union attracted international attention in 2010 when its president, Boaz Torporovsky, announced a plan to send a Kurdish Freedom Flotilla "to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to the Kurds of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

." Torporovsky describes the plan as a reaction

Reactions to the Gaza flotilla raid

Reactions to the Gaza flotilla raid on 31 May 2010 ranged from fierce condemnation to strong support for Israel.Israel expressed regret over loss of life in the Gaza flotilla raid, yet stated that the operation was a "clear case of self defense." The incident also drew attention to the blockade of...

 to the Free Gaza flotillas. He told a reporter that, "There’s a lot of hypocrisy in the world. Turkey, which leads the campaign against Israel and makes all sorts of threats, is the same Turkey that carried out a holocaust and murdered an entire nation of Armenians

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

, and oppresses a minority larger than the Palestinians – the Kurds – who deserve a state, who have demanded a state for longer than the State of Israel has existed."