People were gathering in Kikar Hamedina in the city where a huge rally was set to take place after a march through the streets of the city.
RELATED:Protest leaders want gov't regulation of rent, tax policyAlternative tent protests cast doubt on 'social leaders'Over 153,000 people had gathered across the country to join protests and rallies in over 20 different cities, Channel 10 news reported.The demonstration was billed as the climactic street protest of a movement that has seen tent cities sprout up and forced quality-of-life issues into the forefront of the political debate.In Tel Aviv, where the largest of the marches was set to take place, protesters gathered in HaBima Square and made their was to Kikar HaMedina. The procession was set to head toward Marmurak Street, and then to Jabotinsky Street before arriving in Kikar HaMedina.Speakers at the rally include protest organizer Daphne Leif and Sherry Tanenbaum. Performing acts included Eyal Golan, Hadag Nachash and stars of the television show Eretz Nehederet.“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.”