A week after the social protest in Tel Aviv turned violent, some 10,000 social protesters marched in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer-Sheva and Afula on Saturday night. Among them, several Hadash and Communist Party of Israel members. Demonstrators block major road in central Tel Aviv and protesters prevent light rail from operating in Jerusalem. Protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the northern city of Haifa chanted slogans including “The only solution to privatization is revolution,” “Workers – not slaves” and “Capital mixed with power is an organized crime”.

Several thousand people marched through central Tel Aviv on Saturday in the first massive justice demonstration since 97 people were arrested in protests events, last week-end in Tel-Aviv. The Tel Aviv rally began with crowds gathering at the Habima Theater plaza, from which they will march to the Tel Aviv Museum and several of the city’s main streets have been blocked. Around 10 pm, hundreds of activists split off the main procession and started marching towards the Government Plaza located on Menachem Begin Street, blocking traffic on nearby Kaplan and Namir streets.

Demonstrators shouting slogans against the occupation of the Palestinian territories during a protest for social justice in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 30, 2012 (Photo: Activestills)

In a press release put out on Thursday, the organizers of the Tel Aviv demonstration said, “Israel is at a turning point; the people are taking responsibility for their fate and returning to the streets. This Saturday, we will hit the streets and won’t give up. The state of Israel will return to its citizens.” The speakers at Saturday night’s rally included, among others, retired police commander Zeev Even-Hen, whose daughter Topaz Even-Hen Klein died in the Mount Carmel forest fire. Even-Hen spoke of his and other bereaved families’ plans to petition the Supreme Court with a suit calling for the termination of Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, in light of the findings of the state comptroller’s report of the fire. He also spoke of what he called a disregard for human life and a shirking of personal responsibility on the part of Israel’s leadership.

“The disregard for people’s lives is something that must be stopped and you must make this part of your protest. Look what happens: No one is responsible. The finance minister blames the interior minister; the interior minister blames the finance minister; the Finance Ministry says it’s the Prisons Service; they say it’s the police or the firefighters. Everyone says, ‘It wasn’t me, it was him.’ It’s one big kindergarten and the prime minister is in charge of it,” Even-Hen said.

Stav Shaffir, one of the leaders of last year’s social protest said that the social groups that join the protest “Must be committed to the treaty and must be willing to act if the government fails to meet our demands. We welcome every group – the bigger this treaty is the greater its impact on Israeli society will be.” Also speaking at the protest was Ben Gurion University Professor Yossi Yonah, who has been active in the protest movement since its beginnings last year. “We are angry because a year has passed and nothing has changed. The government continues to prefer the wealthy instead of preferring social justice. Most of the public is behind us. We do not believe in violence, and oppose it. Our strength is not in power, but in our morality,” he said.

In Haifa hundreds of people gathered in Ha’Em Park in Haifa and a similar number of activists gathered in central Beersheba.  Several hundreds gathered in Jerusalem’s Paris Square as well. Marchers blocked access to the capital’s Light Rail, chanting “We are all the Opposition.” Another 500 protesters marched down King George Street in Jerusalem to Zion Square, they shouted slogans against capitalism and the government, called right-wing Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat a dictator and demanded that public spaces to be made public again.

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