Iron barriers are clamped together and a line of Border Patrol agents stand between what seem to be two sides of the same coin. From the past one – the large authentic crowd that gathered in Agrant Square, a few hundred meters from the Knesset building, for the first reading vote on the legal reform laws. From the other past – the stage and the sterile area behind it, reserved for former MKs, speakers and organizers. Also some journalists, wearing pink wristbands, walk around here between the cold water tank and the coffee stand, interviewing the protest leaders.
This is the eighth week of the struggle against the legal reform. The first demonstration took place only a week and a half after the inauguration of the government, immediately after the new Minister of Justice Yariv Levin called a press conference and announced his plan. Within three days, a rally was organized in the plaza of the Bima Square, one of the speakers of which was Hadash chairman Ayman Odeh. A week later, on January 14, the demonstration that was nicknamed the “Umbrella Demonstration” was held under the pouring rain. Since then, there has been a routine of Mochas demonstrations on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv, joined by Monday marches in Jerusalem, and for the progressives – demonstrations on Thursdays on Gaza Street in the capital, in front of the Netanyahu family home.
The protest against the legal reform is of course a relatively recent organization, but when you look at the organizations that motivate it and the personalities that think, initiate, manage and speak for it – it becomes clear that these names have been known to us for quite some time. Some of them came to public consciousness during the days of the Balfour protest or Goren Square, other faces accompany us from the time of the “Gas Robbery” protest or earlier, from the clusters of tents that sprung up that summer of 2011. The signs change, the slogans are renewed, the centers of the protests move from Rothschild to Kaplan and the Prime Minister’s House to the Knesset , but the DJ who dances this party has been standing in his corner for more than a decade. Even the destination, when the variable glory is removed from it, remains the same.
At the foot of the stage, Nadav Galon hands out the pink ribbons to reporters and photographers. He heads towards the amplification to make sure everything is in order, and talks to Roy Neuman about the schedule. More reporters are asking him for the long-awaited films, but the ones he has are sold out and he is waiting for the producer to replenish the stock.
Behind the stage Moshe (Boogie) Ya’alon walks around, sipping coffee and conducting a small talk with the veterans of the political system gathered here. In the background, the song “It’s time to wake up, the house is falling apart” by the Hadg Nahash band, which also became a partner in the legal reform protest, and even earlier in the Balfour demonstrations and the fight against the nationality law, plays repeatedly in the background. The crowd waved signs – “The government is not an institution for the rehabilitation of criminals”, “When the government is against the people, the people are against the government”, “We have gone off the rails” and “Enough with the rabbinic regime.”
“Who goes up first?”, Shakma Bresler asks Roy Neuman. In response, he points in the direction of Dan Meridor, former Minister of Justice and former Likud member. Bresler interrupts Meridor’s conversation with Tzipi Livni – who bears the same titles as “former” – and then goes on stage to open the demonstration. Someone in the audience who brought his own cellphone calls out to her: “Excuse me, can I say something?”. “No,” Bressler answers shortly. The guy tries again: “Democracy, isn’t it?”. “Less,” she cuts him off. Later, she will ask the audience to sing the national anthem and unfurl a huge copy of the Declaration of Independence.
The full article will be published tomorrow (Friday) in Dieukon magazine