Tent city protest movement leaders on Wednesday called on Prof. Manuel
Trajtenberg to resign from the committee he was appointed to lead, saying they
do not have confidence the committee will find solutions to the social issues
facing Israel, and the Knesset must return to session to handle the
issue.
Speaking at press conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, Daphni
Leef, the 26-year-old Tel Avivian who launched the movement, said “Like the
prime minister tried at the start of the protests to get the students to pull
out by one-time temptations such as cheap public transport for one year, this is
also what he is trying to do with the Trajtenberg Committee.
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Estimated 70,000 attend periphery social justice protests“We are
taking this opportunity to call on Prof. Trajtenberg to resign immediately as
head of the committee and not be remembered in the history of the people of
Israel as the one responsible for this fraud.
“There is already an
elected body in Israel and it is called the Knesset. We call on the prime
minister to bring the Knesset out of its recess. It cannot be that the country
is on fire and MKs are on vacation.
“The committee is deceiving the
public. The public is expecting real, deep and continuing change in the daily
agenda of our government when it comes to social and economic issues,” adding
that the committee doesn’t have the mandate to make this change.
Leef and
the other activists also announced during the press conference that they will be
holding a mass protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, as well as in several
other cities.
Not present at the press conference on Wednesday were
representatives of the National Student Union, who have been central to the
protest movement from early on but have at times feuded with the Rothschild
Boulevard-based tent city leadership.
In a statement issued following the
press conference, the union said “the students are working to bring long term
and immediate social and economic changes. We believe in the path that blends a
social struggle and dialogue.”
In the coming days, the union will release
its suggestions for what Trajtenberg’s committee should recommend to the
government, the statement said.
The union also specified it will continue
to cooperate with the tent protest leadership in the planning of this Saturday’s
rallies and the “Million Man March” planned for September 3.
