RELATED:Tent-city protesters present demands to Trajtenberg C’teeIsrael Beiteinu unveils economic plan in answer to protests“We’ve reached a turning point in the movement. For six weeks [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu has seen what we’re doing and has not given us any respectful sort of response. If after September 3 he still hasn’t, then it will be clear that we don’t have a partner and we have no choice but to launch a long-term protest that could take years,” Shir Nosatzki, one of the activists at the center of the tent-city protest, said on Thursday. “The path is long, but we are capable of going down this road.”Activists have attached an historic sort of pre-game hype to the event, with the tag line “Where were you on September 3?” attached to posters and flyers, invoking the question “where were you on November 5” asked about the night in 1995 that prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.Itzik Shmuli, head of the National Union of Students, also spoke in prophetic terms regarding coming protest, saying in a statement on Thursday that “this Saturday we are taking our socioeconomic fate into our own hands. If we don’t come to the protest we will hand our fate over for the next 25 years.”The Tel Aviv demonstration is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., with a march from the Habimah Theater to Hamedina Square in the city’s north where a rally will be held.In addition to speakers, the rally will be headlined by Eyal Golan, the first time a Mizrachi singer has hadthe honor at one of the movement’s Saturday night Tel Aviv rallies. The event will also feature the Hadag Nahash hip hop/funk band and the cast of the TV political satire show Eretz Nehederet (“A Wonderful Country”), who will broadcast a special edition during the protest.Demonstrations will be held in at least nine additional cities, from Nahariya in the North to Mitzpe Ramon in the South.Daphni Leef, the 26-year-old film editor who in mid-July launched a Facebook event that started the movement, said on Thursday, “I am calling on everyone to step out of the house on Saturday night and take part in the biggest protest ever held in the history of Israel. Together we will send a clear and strong message to the government of Israel: The people want social justice here and now. We won’t stop protesting, we won’t stop the struggle!” With the protest looming, dozens of Tel Aviv bars, restaurants and cafes have joined the cause, volunteering to close their doors on Saturday evening so employees and customers can take part in the rally.Preparations for Saturday’s events took place against the backdrop of a media report that activists will announce at Saturday’s main rally in Tel Aviv their decision to fold up the tent cities, and enter a new phase of the protest.Midday at the Rothschild Boulevard tent city in Tel Aviv, few people seemed to know anything about the reported decision.
Protesters ready for ‘March of the Million’
After six weeks of nation-wide social protests, movement to reach turning point as demonstration is launched in several cities.
RELATED:Tent-city protesters present demands to Trajtenberg C’teeIsrael Beiteinu unveils economic plan in answer to protests“We’ve reached a turning point in the movement. For six weeks [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu has seen what we’re doing and has not given us any respectful sort of response. If after September 3 he still hasn’t, then it will be clear that we don’t have a partner and we have no choice but to launch a long-term protest that could take years,” Shir Nosatzki, one of the activists at the center of the tent-city protest, said on Thursday. “The path is long, but we are capable of going down this road.”Activists have attached an historic sort of pre-game hype to the event, with the tag line “Where were you on September 3?” attached to posters and flyers, invoking the question “where were you on November 5” asked about the night in 1995 that prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.Itzik Shmuli, head of the National Union of Students, also spoke in prophetic terms regarding coming protest, saying in a statement on Thursday that “this Saturday we are taking our socioeconomic fate into our own hands. If we don’t come to the protest we will hand our fate over for the next 25 years.”The Tel Aviv demonstration is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., with a march from the Habimah Theater to Hamedina Square in the city’s north where a rally will be held.In addition to speakers, the rally will be headlined by Eyal Golan, the first time a Mizrachi singer has hadthe honor at one of the movement’s Saturday night Tel Aviv rallies. The event will also feature the Hadag Nahash hip hop/funk band and the cast of the TV political satire show Eretz Nehederet (“A Wonderful Country”), who will broadcast a special edition during the protest.Demonstrations will be held in at least nine additional cities, from Nahariya in the North to Mitzpe Ramon in the South.Daphni Leef, the 26-year-old film editor who in mid-July launched a Facebook event that started the movement, said on Thursday, “I am calling on everyone to step out of the house on Saturday night and take part in the biggest protest ever held in the history of Israel. Together we will send a clear and strong message to the government of Israel: The people want social justice here and now. We won’t stop protesting, we won’t stop the struggle!” With the protest looming, dozens of Tel Aviv bars, restaurants and cafes have joined the cause, volunteering to close their doors on Saturday evening so employees and customers can take part in the rally.Preparations for Saturday’s events took place against the backdrop of a media report that activists will announce at Saturday’s main rally in Tel Aviv their decision to fold up the tent cities, and enter a new phase of the protest.Midday at the Rothschild Boulevard tent city in Tel Aviv, few people seemed to know anything about the reported decision.