TEL AVIV, (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands marched today for lower living costs in the largest such rally in Israel’s history, bolstering a social change movement and mounting pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take on economic reform.
Protest leaders called it “the moment of truth” for the grassroots movement that has swollen since July from a cluster of student tent-squatters into a countrywide mobilisation of Israel’s middle class.
“An entire generation wants a future,” read one banner as demonstrators flooded the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and cities throughout Israel, shouting “the people demand social justice.”
Netanyahu has warned he would not be able to satisfy all the protesters’ demands, ranging from tax cuts, to expansion of free education and bigger government housing budgets.
Organisers said over 450,000 people took part in the demonstrations. Police put the number at at least 300,000.
Protests on that scale in Israel, with a population of 7.7 million, are usually held over issues of war and peace.
“Tonight is the pinnacle moment of a historic protest,” Amir Rochman, 30, an activist from Israel’s Green Party said.
“Israel will no longer be the same,” Itzik Shmuli, head of the National Student Union and one of the protest leaders said at the rally. “Our new Israel demands real change in the priorities of its government”.
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