The tent protesters today announced that this Saturday night's main protest will be held in Beersheva, rather than in Tel Aviv. A second protest march is planned to take place in the north. The organizers said that the objective was to move the center of power to the periphery.
Yesterday, the protesters published their vision for Israeli society, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the make-up of his team for socioeconomic change.
Judea and Samaria Council chairman Danny Dayan visited the tent protest on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv today. Although the Judea and Samaria Council has not officially joined the protest, Dayan said that it was a worthy protest that brings the entire nation together.
Dayan said, "There are a lot of settlers among the tents here. The whole people of Israel are here. For years, I've been saying that Israeli society should be engaged, and from this perspective, the tent camps across the country have now created a grace period. This is the time to engage to deal with the ills of Israeli society. This protest puts real distress on the agenda."
Dayan said that the social protest should not turn into a protest that will tear society apart, and that this was the time to focus on solutions. As for the issue of government spending on the settlements and whether this contradicted social justice, he said, "There are no special incentives for the settlements now. Not in housing nor for education, nor for anything else. We have the same problems as everyone else. Home prices in the settlements have also soared and their residents are middle class people par excellence."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 9, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011