Tel Avivis protest gas prices, Assad

A mass protest against rising utilities prices, reminiscent of last summer’s social justice rallies, attracted 2,000 demonstrators in central Tel Aviv on Saturday. A smaller protest against Assad’s continuing slaughter of Syrian civilians garnered support from a few hundred.

The assembled protesters against the price of gasoline, and the consequent rise in cost of living, marched from Rabin Square to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. At the square in front of the museum, speakers called for drastic social change and condemned the Netanyahu administration’s inadequate reforms.

Electricity bills are expected to go up 9% despite the reduced increase in gas prices, Army Radio reported.

Protest leaders demanded earlier on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intervene and cancel the planned rise in utilities costs. As the protest began at 8pm, Netanyahu announced a 75% decrease in the tax increase that was slated to take effect at midnight.

Across town, two hundred protesters congregated in Meir Park and called on Western governments to intervene on behalf of the Syrian people against the Assad regime.

Activist Elizabeth Tsurkov tweeted that speakers drew comparisons between the silence of world leaders during the Holocaust and current inaction over Syria.

Police barricaded sections of major avenues in central Tel Aviv in anticipation of the thousands of protesters.