Social justice activists hail budget decision as win

PM decides to double next year's budget deficit ceiling instead of new tax hikes; Stav Shafir says move is result of social protest.

By BEN HARTMAN
Protest leaders Dafni Leef, Stav Shafir 311 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Protest leaders Dafni Leef, Stav Shafir 311
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Though it’s still unclear what motivated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to make the decision Tuesday to double next year’s budget deficit ceiling instead of implementing new tax hikes, social justice protesters greeted the news as a victory for their movement.
Protest leader Stav Shafir wrote on her Facebook wall on Tuesday “one after the other they surrender: Netanyahu canceled the tax hike as a result of pressure caused by the protest.”
Shafir also mentioned the decision by the Meretz faction of the Tel Aviv City Council to leave the coalition as a protest against Mayor Ron Huldai and the violence of police and city inspectors, adding “finally the people are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Yonatan Levi, another prominent activist, said of the news “when we go into the streets things happen, now we just need to continue, continue, continue.”
Such messages were common across Facebook on Tuesday, where the news was met as confirmation that the new, angrier and more aggressive tone of the movement set at Saturday night’s heated protest will succeed where last year’s kinder and gentler protests failed.