Across Israel, hundreds protest against new budget

Social protests held for second straight week; protest in Tel Aviv draws a few hundred.

By BEN HARTMAN
Social justice protestors in Tel Aviv 370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Social justice protestors in Tel Aviv 370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
A few hundred people marched in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest the current government’s economic policies, in the second-straight week of “social justice” protests in the city.
The protest in Tel Aviv was held at the same time that hundreds gathered in Jerusalem as well as in Beersheba.
Other protests included a few hundred people who gathered outside the house of Israeli businessman Yitzhak Tshuva in Netanya, and a few dozen outside of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea. At the protest in Netanya, demonstrators called for a greater share of the offshore gas profits to go into the public coffers, while in Caesarea, protesters rallied against the budget and lampooned recent revelations about the expenditures at the prime minister’s house.
At the protest in Tel Aviv, the crowd called out chants like “there is no future with [finance minister] Lapid and Bibi [Netanyahu]” as well as “the people demand social justice,” a chant from the 2011 protests.
Saturday night’s protests were far smaller than last weekend’s, when several thousand people marched through central Tel Aviv in what was billed as the reignition of the 2011 social justice protests, in response to the announcement of the new budget.