Social justice activists hail budget decision as win
06/27/2012 04:51
PM decides to double next year's budget deficit ceiling instead of new tax hikes; Stav Shafir says move is result of social protest.
Protest leaders Dafni Leef, Stav Shafir Photo: 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.