JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 3,000 Israelis marked the two-year anniversary of the social justice protest movement and demonstrated against current government economic policy at a rally in Tel Aviv.
The protest on Saturday night against the high cost of living, government budget cuts and the failure to initiate social reform blocked the major Ayalon Highway. Protesters marched in downtown Tel Aviv as well as south Tel Aviv.
The rally also commemorated the one-year anniversary of the death of social activist Moshe Sliman, who set himself on fire at a demonstration in Tel Aviv last summer. A letter written by Sliman shortly before his self-immolation was read at the main demonstration and protesters observed a moment of silence in his memory.
Many of the leaders of the 2011 social justice protests, including Daphni Leef, organized the protest.
The protesters decried Finance Minister Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, which was born out of the social justice protests, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
