Tonite (Saturday) mass evening’s protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Modi'in, Kiryat Shmona, Nazareth and othe cities against the high cost of living and the Netanyahu government will be even larger than last week’s, activists said today.
Alon-Lee Green, 22, a union-organizer and one of the leading activists to take part in the Rothschild Boulevard housing protests that started in Tel Aviv two weeks ago, said Saturday’s protest “are going to be much bigger. We’re going to have protests in eleven different cities at the same time. This protest is really gathering all the different protesters: the teachers, the mothers, the doctors, the working class families, Jews and Arabs, all different types of people.” He added “The last one was just about housing, but this one will be much bigger because now it’s about everything, against the right wing government and against capitalism and neo-liberalism.”
The housing protest movement, which was launched two weeks ago on a Facebook page set up by 26-year-old Daphni Leef, has been criticized for "lacking a unified message or a clear set of demands". According to Green, that should change tonight. “At the protest we will state our demands, and it won’t just be about housing,” Green continued “we will present the type of society we want in Israel. The society we dream about in Israel and how we can make it happen – with social justice.”
Trainee clinical psychologists joined the tent camp on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv on Thursday to protest against what they say is the desperate situation facing the country's clinical psychologists. The psychologist trainees say the state is trying to destroy the public mental health service as part of its privatization drive. Patients must wait for months to see a therapist because the government agency does not employ enough psychologists, according to Lior Bitton, a trainee clinical psychologist who is one of the leaders of the protest. He said the problem was not a lack of psychologists within Israel, but rather a lack of positions in the mental health service.
Israeli well know writers: Meir Shalev, Yoram Kaniuk, Etgar Keret, Eshkol Nevo and poet Ronny Somek also visited the tent city in Rothschild Boulevard Thursday, offering their support in the struggle to lower living costs in Israel. The writers sat and talked with the protesters and read stories to the children who took part in the "stroller marches" that took place earlier in the day. "I think this is a unique event," Shalev said. "The Israeli government is neglecting and ignoring the backbone of its society. This is a government that obeys only those who exert power on it. So far it has been the Orthodox and the settlers, and now we are seeing that there is organizing on this side of the Green Line as well."
Shalev added that that protest should lead to early elections and the replacement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "He is scared of you," he told the protesters. "He is scared of you because he doesn't understand your language, and you are better than him at public relations."
The "strollers march"
Thousands of parents took part in a "strollers march" on Thursday, in protest of what they called "the high costs of raising a child in Israel." The main protest march was held in Tel Aviv, with similar rallies and marches held in a dozen other cities across Israel, such as Rehovot, Kfar Saba, Ashdod, Haifa and Beersheba, to name a few.
The parents are protesting the exaggerated fees charged by daycare centers and nursery schools, as well as the overall high prices of basic babies and children's products. The initiative began as a protest group on Facebook, which declared that "raising a child in Israel is so expensive, you need a second mortgage." Over 2,000 people RSVP'd to the subsequent protest invitation posted on the group's page.
The protest's organizers called on parents to tie a yellow balloon to their strollers and wear yellow shirts, as a sign of solidarity with the affordable housing protest. Protesters were holding signs reading "Bibi go home," "A grandmother isn’t a bank," "Bibi wake up, parents are worth more," "Our children demand social justice," "Kids – not only for the rich," and "Let's remind the government who carries the load."
Over 4,000 parents participated in the Tel Aviv march alone. Some 600 people marched in Raanana, 300 protested in Haifa and dozens rallied in Yehud, Nes Ziona and Rishon Lezion. The protesters announced that a second "strollers march" will be held in Jerusalem on next Sunday.
On Thursday Jerusalem's tent protest movement has united with the GLBT community Thursday, joining the Jerusalem gay pride parade. The reinforced march, with the participation of the Hadash activist's "Red-Pink Movement", began in the Independence Park and continued towards the Knesset, where activists have set up an tent camp over the past week in protest against the escalating housing prices. Following the parade, a rally was held at the nearby Wohl Rose Park. Various MKs and other public figures spoke at the event.
"We say to Prime Minister Netanyahu, this is not a sectorial struggle, so don't try to divide and conquer us," MK Dov Khenin spoke at the event and said "this is a pride parade against a government of shame, a homophobic government. A government that doesn't understand that all of the struggles are common struggles for one social justice."
Towards a general strike?
In addition to Saturday’s protests, many people have said they won’t go to work on Monday. On Facebook, more than 20,000 people had already RSVP’d participation in the strike by Thursday. In keeping with what is a constantly evolving movement – without a centralized leadership – it’s safe to assume that additional protest moves will be carried out on a rolling basis throughout next week.
Hundreds of people took part (Friday) in a Tel Aviv protest against the cost of living. The demonstrators, protesting recent price hikes and especially the price of petrol, blocked a road on the corner of King Saul and Ibn Gvirol streets. The protestors waved flags of Israel and held signs reading, "Land of milk and taxes" and "It's time to close the gaps". They chanted, "The people demand social justice".
Ze'ev Grawer, who initiated the petrol protest, told journalists at the start of the march: "The people must unite so that we can make it clear to the Israeli government that it must give us economic freedom, affordable petrol, affordable housing and an affordable life." He added that if the government failed to meet the protestors' demands, they would block roads all over the country next Monday.
Striking doctors arrived in Jerusalem, yesterday morning and established a protest tent camp outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. The Israel Medical Association, led by Chairman Dr. Leonid Eidelman, intends to attempt to present Netanyahu with a petition with tens of thousands of signatures calling to "save public medicine." Eidelman and a number of other doctors plan to remain at the tent camp until the strike is settled. Eidelman has been on a hunger strike since Monday.
Talks between the IMA and the Finance Ministry are still deadlocked, but the sides have agreed to return to the negotiating table and resume where they left off a week ago, when medical residents started their own protests. Meeting on Thursday at the Finance Ministry, representatives of the physicians and the treasury agreed to work in small groups before drafting a contract together. "But as long as the doctors have not been offered any money, there will be no breakthrough," said a figure involved in the negotiations. "The missing money has still not arrived," he added. The marchers are planning a demonstration in the Rose Garden next to the Knesset tomorrow, on Sunday.
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