Despite original vows to stay out of electoral politics, social justice protest leaders Shmuli and Shaffir join Labor.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, DANIELLE ZIRIYesha chair Danny Dayan, Student Union head Itzik Shmuli 311(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
National Union of Israeli Students Chairman Itzik Shmuli, one of the leaders of the 2011 summer social justice protests, announced on Wednesday that he will run for a Knesset seat with the Labor Party in the upcoming elections."After a long and tormenting period of indecision, I decided this morning to go on a new path out of a real feeling of mission and a strong desire to contribute and influence in other places," Shmuli said in his letter of resignation to the National Union of Israeli Students.Shmuli joins Stav Shaffir, another of the public faces of the social justice protests, who formally announced on Friday that she will run for a Knesset seat with the Labor Party in the upcoming elections.“I never thought I would be a politician. I always believed that there was a way to influence the system from outside, using social pressure, education work and all the other things we have done everyday in the past year,” Shaffir told The Jerusalem Post.“I went through a very big personal change in the past year, a sort of difficult experience that taught me that even the voices of 500,000 people in the streets cannot influence the system,” she explained. “I feel that if this is how things are, I am obligated to take this step and expand our influence beyond the street.”Click for full JPost coverage
