By Lia Tarachansky, The Real News Network – 17 May 2012
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8330
Last Summer’s J14 movement against the high cost of living in Israel organized first major demo of the year, police targeted leaders
On Saturday Israelis organized the first demonstration of what was meant to be a resurrection of last summer’s protests against the high cost of living. Last July protest tents were set up in dozens of cities throughout the country and mass demonstrations reached half a million people in Tel Aviv. The Real News’ Lia Tarachansky covered the movement from July 14 when it officially started (and became known as J14) to the end of the Fall, when protests stopped.
This Saturday, roughly ten thousand people came out to Rabin Square in downtown Tel Aviv. A crew of police media staff circled the demonstrators, filming activists who held megaphones or looked like leaders. One officer instructed the police to arrest a man who called officers “fascists”. Tarachansky spoke to protesters on the street, including renown director and playwright Udi Aloni and interviewed the Spokesperson of the Israeli Police, Micky Rosenfeld, lawyer Emily Schaeffer, and Member of Knesset Dov Khenin of the HADASH party.
Credit: Emily Schaeffer Photo by Yanai Yehiel