Yesh Atid to protest ‘Netanyahu’s fire sale’

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid will speak at a demonstration on Friday morning at the Kaplan Junction in Tel Aviv planned in response to reports of Likud’s concessions to United Torah Judaism in coalition talks.

“Over the past few days we have been witness to a fire sale by Prime Minister Netanyahu. The coalition agreement signed between the Likud and United Torah Judaism takes Israel backwards and revokes all the changes in social priorities made by Yesh Atid over the past two years. Canceling the Equality in National Service bill, canceling the study of core subjects in all schools and bringing back criteria which discriminate against the general public and in favor of the Haredi population with regards to housing, taxation and education are just the tip of the iceberg. The agreement diverts budgets of around NIS 5 billion and significant public resources to one sector at the expense of the middle class and the most vulnerable in society.”

The party did extremely well in the previous election on a platform which highlighted sharing the burden of military service fairly between ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis. Some of its bills remain unlegislated but others are still in the pipeline of Knesset committees. Likud has promised UTJ, however, that it will reverse the process. The promise was intended as a carrot to lure UTJ to sign the coalition agreement.