'Bibi you abandoned us': Business owners protest coronavirus closures
"We are close to anarchy and to turning [business owners] into criminals against their will."
By EVE YOUNG Shop and small business owners protested coronavirus lockdown regulations in Tel Aviv (Avshalom Sassoni/ Maariv).
Shop and small business owners protested coronavirus lockdown regulations forcing them to stay closed, with some wearing nooses around their necks and dumping piles of clothing and merchandise into the street, in Tel Aviv Tuesday morning. Shop and small business owners protested coronavirus lockdown regulations in Tel Aviv (Avshalom Sassoni/ Maariv)Mannequins hung from rooftops, as demonstrators wearing shirts that read "Bibi you abandoned us" chanted into megaphones. Shop and small business owners protested coronavirus lockdown regulations in Tel Aviv (Avshalom Sassoni/ Maariv)Shop owners also put nooses on mannequins and signs in store windows that read "fashion is in quarantine" and "I am Shulman."Shop and small business owners protested coronavirus lockdown regulations in Tel Aviv (Avshalom Sassoni/ Maariv).Shulman is a movement set up on Facebook in October 2019 to fight on behalf of the self-employed and small and medium businesses. It was established as a platform where the self-employed and small business people could air their grievances about the regulations and bureaucracies that they said were suffocating them.Shop and small business owners protested coronavirus lockdown regulations in Tel Aviv (Avshalom Sassoni/ Maariv)."Store owners have been hurt more than anyone," said Roy Cohen, President of LAHAV, the Israel Chamber of Independent Organizations and Businesses."These people currently have no hope and there is no dialogue with them at all, as if they don't exist. We are close to anarchy and to turning them, against their will, into criminals who open their businesses [against regulations] in order to feed their families," Cohen went on to say.
"We have come here today to say to the Prime Minister and Health Minister that this disdain [for shop owners] in the reckless decision-making will not be accepted silently, the rage and frustration will erupt across Israel."Shop and small business owners protested coronavirus lockdown regulations in Tel Aviv (Avshalom Sassoni/ Maariv).Herb Keinon contributed to this report.
