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After eight weeks of non-stop protests, Israel's social justice movement hopes to conclude its street rallies with the largest protest in Israel's history: a million people (which would be 13% of the population in a country with only 7.7 million).
Protesters spontaneously stop traffic and dance in a Tel Aviv intersection.
At their core, these protests have been about a fairer distribution of wealth. They have been about economic reforms that give all Israelis access to affordable education, health care, and fair wages. And they have been about social reforms, giving all Israelis access to equal opportunities and treatment under the law. Jews. Arabs. Immigrants. Druze. Bedouin. The poor. The shrinking middle class. The vulnerable.
The significance of the moment cannot be understated, for if what would be the equivalent of 40 million people in America pour into Israel's streets tomorrow evening, the moment may end up defining the future character of the nation.
But don't just take my word for it. Here are what others are saying about the potential for what may occur tomorrow. This from a Haaretz editorial, imploring Israelis to take to the streets:
Participating in tomorrow's demonstration means caring and involvement; not participating means complacency and willful blindness to the ills of Israel's society and economy. There is little dispute over the need for change, and that near-unanimous recognition must be given forceful expression Saturday.
Saturday's event in [Tel Aviv] will determine the character of our society: Will it remain comatose, submissively accepting the injustice that has pervaded it, or will it rise up in tenacious struggle? Will Israelis consent to go on living in a society where they pay too much and receive too little, and where most of the wealth is concentrated in too few hands, or are they set on change?
Here is Bradley Burston:
[For too long] corporate and bureaucratic functionaries [have been] rewarded for bleeding and bilking and misleading and milking and ultimately discarding the customers and clients they were meant to be serving...the burdens of everyday life have for so long persuaded people that they could do nothing about them.
This is the structure that says: never question, never apologize, never take responsibility. This is the structure that created Israel's ills. This is the structure that fosters occupation, segregation, discrimination, humiliation, and, at the same time, saps the will and the means to do anything about it.
No more. It either ends here, or Israel does. Saturday night.
And here is Gideon Levy:
Saturday the power of a society will be tested - a society that has finally come alive and grown up after decades of slumber. If the masses flood the square, their outcry will be heard. Nobody, not even Benjamin Netanyahu's government, could ignore hundreds of thousands of Israelis demanding change and social justice.
From the protest's first day, from the first large demonstration on July 23, it was marked by an enthusiasm we never witnessed at any other demonstration, perhaps since the birth of the state.
All eyes will be on Kikar Hamedina Saturday, not only those yearning for success, but also the worried, frightened eyes of people fearing change in the existing order, which was so good to them. The protest's enemies, few but powerful, will stay home hoping that the demonstration will bomb.
These are most of our politicians, tycoons and owners of big companies and their relatives. People who overprice and overcharge, who drive to their minimum-wage factories in their black Mercedes, like the chairman of the ailing Pri Hagalil plant in the north. Also staying home will be the army of high-paid conservative commentators. They're all lying in wait, hoping that the revolution will fail.
After the protest tomorrow, leaders plan to take down their tents, end the mass rallies, and move onto a new, political phase in which they hope to effect massive economic and social changes within Israel.
Tomorrow's rally may determine whether or not Israel's youth have the social and political capital to do so.
Tomorrow may define the fate of the nation.
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Author's Note: Here is an animated video produced by a protester called "Israel Machine" that visually represents many of the protesters' issues, from the fleecing of the middle class to militarism to the separation wall.
Per 972 Magazine's description:
The characters at the top of the machine, by order of appearance, are PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud), Foreign Minster Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beitenu), Interior Minister Eli Yishay (Shas), Defense Minister Ehud Barak (ex-Labor) and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni (Kadima). The handles they are dancing on state their role.
The caption on the Youtube page with the video says “instead of changing seats, let’s change the system.”