Tonight at 19:00, Kikar Hatarbut (Habima) will host a protest event that we have not seen before for a long time – a protest that does not come from the right or the left, but from a TV show. The reference is, of course, to the “pipeline” cost of living protest, in which the public pressure campaign “Pasta Rebellion” was announced, which caused the Osem company to cancel its planned price increase. As part of the campaign, the program offered a “protest basket” containing products competing with those of Osem at much lower prices, and thousands of such baskets were purchased by viewers in Operation Bezeq.
Tonight, the people of “The Pipe” intend to distribute the baskets purchased at a special protest event to be held in the square, and will also include some short speeches and a party starring the giants of the Israeli EDM scene, Skazi, Vinny Vichy and DJ Gallo. The event will begin at 7pm and its organizers are hoping for thousands to fill the square and give a windfall to the protest with the aim of continuing it on a wider scale. “Because tens of thousands of packages have already been sold and a significant portion of them have to be physically distributed,” Guy Lerer explained on Twitter, “and since pasta is just the gateway to talking about the really big things, then we got this thing out, including free indulgence for the main victims.”
Since the outbreak of the protest led by the program, Lerer has been criticized for accusing him of populism, and with the call for protest tonight, he has been criticized on the left for playing his part into Netanyahu’s supporters and Netanyahu’s supporters for hitting their demonstration tomorrow. At this point it is not clear if Lerer and his system will be able to leverage their pasta operation into a real protest, but if you come tonight it will be a little clearer.