Disabled protesters demanding higher living stipends block major TA highway

Disabled protesters and activists on Thursday blocked a major highway in Tel Aviv as part of a campaign for higher disability stipends and pensions for the elderly, causing a major artery running through the city to be closed for almost an hour, and leading to confrontations between drivers and protesters.

Southbound traffic on the Ayalon freeway at the Azrieli intersection came to a total standstill during rush hour after the road was blocked by around 150 activists, many of them disabled, who were calling for government stipends for the disabled and elderly to be increased to NIS 5,300 ($1,500) so that it matches the minimum wage.

Among those in attendance were Joint List MK Dov Khenin and Meretz MK Ilan Gilon. Holding signs with slogans such as, “We want justice, not charity,” and, “We do not abandon the elderly, children, and the disabled,” the demonstrators were continuing protests which began in March 2017.

After a year of negotiations and dozens of wildcat protests blocking roads and snarling traffic, the Knesset in February raised the monthly stipend to NIS 3,700 ($1,050). However, activists say that this isn’t enough.

Songwriter Shimrit Or explained her reasons for attending the the protest to the Walla news site: “I am both disabled and elderly, therefore I identify with this. And without any connection I identify with the struggle of needy people struggling with a stipend of about NIS 2,500, when they have to cope with far more serious and existential problems than other people.

“That’s half the minimum wage that a worker makes in a month,” she said. “It is impossible to live on this amount. That is clear, but the government, for all sorts of irrelevant reasons, ignores it and gets stuck in political battles.”