Herschkowitz: Protesters have clear political interest

Likud, Shas ministers have been careful not to say anything negative about the protests, which polls show are supported by the general public.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Hershkowitz cellphone 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Hershkowitz cellphone 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Habayit Hayehudi leader Daniel Hershkowitz openly criticized the protests against the housing shortage on Wednesday.
Likud and Shas ministers have been careful to not say anything negative about the protests, which polls show are supported by the general public and by Likud and Shas voters.
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But the leaders of other right-wing parties have been more openly critical in recent days, starting with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman last week and now Hershkowitz.
“The protests were started and encouraged by people who have a clear political interest,” Hershkowitz wrote in an article in the coming weekend’s rightwing newspaper Besheva.
“NGOs from the left-end of the political map, together with the New Israel Fund, didn’t just ride the protesters’ coattails.
They made them happen with the help of the country’s top media outlets.”
Hershkowitz wrote that it was wise of the left-wing organizations to initiate a protest on issues on which there is a national consensus and not on diplomatic issues as they have in the past.
He defended religious Zionists from charges that they were not participating in the protests, because they didn’t care. He said the reason why there were not large amounts of knitted kippot at the demonstrations was because there had been calls among protesters to overthrow Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
“Already in the first demonstration, the leaders of the protests went on stage and cried out Mubarak-Assad- Netanyahu,” he wrote.
“Some would be satisfied with overthrowing him but others want to see him like Mubarak on a stretcher in a cage.”
There have been some religious Zionist leaders who have made a point of visiting the protests, including Jerusalem Rabbi Benny Lau, MK Michael Ben-Ari, and Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria director-general Naftali Bennett.
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