Hundreds attend ‘grandparents protest’ in Tel Aviv against judicial overhaul

A dozen grandmothers board a bus to make their way from an assisted living facility in Israel’s center to Tel Aviv’s HaBima Square. Usually, their driver drops them at a philharmonic performance, but today, they join hundreds of other senior citizens as part of a grandparents’ protest against the government’s plan to increase political power by constraining the judiciary.

“We made a placard with little grandchildren all around it and we wrote how many we have,” in total 92, says Rossie Gelb, 81, one of the protesting residents.

Tonight’s protest is the second organized by “Savtot for Democracy,” the Hebrew term for grandmother.

Founded only six weeks ago by Anne Berkeley, 70, a Glaswegian who made her home in Israel in 1978, the movement hopes to add what Berkeley calls overlooked voices among the panoply of protest organizations that have sprouted in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s plans.

“A lot of people don’t see or hear older ladies… we get to a certain age, our hair gets greyer, and we kind of become invisible in a way,” Berkeley says.

Gelb, who herself immigrated to Israel from Montreal in 1961 and raised her four children in Israel, echoes the sentiment, saying that this new addition to the protest scene gives her a sense of “support.”

Gathered in HaBima Square, the women are joined by other grandparents, as well as their children and grandchildren who came in support.

“Where are your grandchildren?” someone asks an elderly woman. “In the army!” she smiles.

Labor MK Efrat Rayten addresses the crowd, saying that for the past 15 weeks, protesters like those assembled “woke up because [the government is] talking about taking our very basic rights, those rights that we fought for.”

“Shame!” one of the protesters shouts, prompting the crowd to break out into chants.