2,000 turn out for Human Rights March in Tel Aviv

By JPOST.COM STAFF AND BEN HARTMAN

Organizers say social justice movement will give march added relevance; focus on gov't "assault on democratic values."

Some 2,000 people turned out for the third annual Human Rights March in Tel Aviv Friday morning.

The march is being organized for the third year in a row by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) in collaboration with dozens of other local human rights organizations. Organizers say the recent social justice movement that swept the country over the summer, bringing hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the streets, will give the march added relevance.

Various different groups representing different sectors participated in the march, which began at Habima in the center of the city. Groups associated with Meretz, Israel Beiteinu, African refugee communities, the gay community, and the Israeli-Arab advocacy group Adalah were all present.

The marchers gathering at Habima square, the nexus of the summer’s social justice movement, and made its way to Rabin Square for a midday protest.

Libby Lenkinski, ACRI’s director of international relations, said Thursday that a lot had changed since last year’s march – “mainly that hundreds of thousands of Israelis now know what it feels like to get off the couch and march in support of something.

Hopefully some of that energy will translate tomorrow both in numbers and energy.”

Lenkinski said she believed the march was coming at a time when “Israel’s democratic principles are increasingly being called into question,” citing what she referred to as “anti-democratic trends in legislation in the Knesset [as well as] a public atmosphere that is hostile toward civil society organizations and human rights organizations in general.”

She said anti-democratic legislation was broken down into four categories: legislation like the Nakba Law and the loyalty oath, which target the country’s Arab minority; laws like the boycott and foreign funding laws that target civil society and NGOs; legislation to limit the power of the High Court of Justice; and legislation to limit freedom of speech.

Sunday will see a number of additional protest actions, directed at what organizers say are the worsening socioeconomic gaps in society.

Under the banner “Fed up with mortgages – let’s strike back at the banks with a consumer boycott,” a protest set for Sunday will begin with participants placing repossession notices on banks in their area.

Also Sunday, a group of protesters will be demonstrating outside the Israel Business Conference in Tel Aviv, in a call for social and economic reform.


(2011-12-9/jpost.com)