‘I’m here to call on the government to do what it has promised,’ Tel Aviv protester says

Tel Aviv resident Ruti Arenfeld says she’s attending the protest in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square to show solidarity with many of her friends who have lost their jobs as a result of the government’s crippling restrictions aimed at curbing the pandemic.

“I’m not here to make a political statement. There are some who are trying to make this about Bibi’s corruption, but I think that’s a mistake,” she says as a man walks by her with a poster reading “corrupt ones go home,” next to a picture of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I’m here to call on the government to do what it has promised. To transfer the money to the wage workers and small businesses,” continues Arenfeld.

“You told them to close and they did that. Now it’s your turn to help them before it’s too late,” she adds.

While organizers billed the demonstration as apolitical, some of the protesters chant, “Bibi [Netanyahu], go home,” in what appears to represent the sentiment among many of the participants.

Dozens of police officers are roaming in and around Rabin Square, with some of them playing a pre-recorded message asking protesters to abide the government’s coronavirus guidelines by remaining two meters apart from one another and wearing masks.

— Jacob Magid