Protesters for disabled rights block traffic ahead of Knesset debate
Slow-moving convoy chokes Route 1, street near Knesset in latest demonstration to draw attention to push for increased stipend
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Activists campaigning for disabled rights disrupted traffic along the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway on Monday ahead of a special Knesset debate on their effort to see government disability benefits raised to the level of minimum wage.
Route 1 was blocked off eastward between Latrun and Jerusalem as protesters drove slowly in both lanes on their way to the capital. Police arrived to direct motorists around the blockage.
Protesters also blocked a street near the Knesset in the capital, the latest in a series of actions meant to highlight the protesters’ plight.
The Knesset debate on the issue is the first since the protests began several months ago, coming while the legislature is on recess.
Opposition Zionist Union MK Itzik Shmuli said the government has been dragging its feet for far too long.
“For weeks already all this government has done for the handicapped is to give them the runaround, to humiliate them, and mostly to lie to them,” Shmuli said according to a report from Channel 10 television. “This can’t go on, even more so when there is an enormous excess in the Treasury coffers.”
“Instead of raising the benefits to the minimum wage level, as the government has promised to do already many times, they are continuing the same abuse that has gone on for several weeks. The Knesset can’t just stand by. We will not give up until the disability pension rises to the minimum wage level.”
In June, lawmakers from across the political spectrum urged the government to accept a new plan, which would raise the monthly stipend from NIS 2,342 ($660) to NIS 4,000 ($1,130).
The new stipend level would be linked to the minimum wage, which is raised periodically through Knesset legislation. The current stipend level is linked to the consumer price index, which rises more slowly than the minimum wage.
The proposal is a compromise between the demands of disability activists, including MK Ilan Gilon of Meretz, to set the stipend at the minimum wage, or NIS 5,000 ($1,400) per month, and those of a committee appointed by Netanyahu that recommended a more modest increase to NIS 3,200 ($900), and would limit the stipend to those with very severe disabilities and no family.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would advance legislation to raise disability benefits in the near future.
However, earlier this month the prime minister said he endorsed only a partial version of the proposal, which will limit the increased stipend to those with very severe disabilities and no family.
A report in the Haaretz newspaper said the modest increase will leave 100,000 people, or 45 percent of those on disability stipends, without any increase.
The traffic protest was the latest in a series of escalating actions disabled citizens have taken to push for an increase in state benefits. In June, demonstrators tried to set themselves on fire outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, but were stopped by police officers who grabbed the gasoline containers.
Last week protesters blocked two major highways near Tel Aviv and on other occasions have disrupted traffic at the entrance to Jerusalem.
Protest leaders have said the best way to bring public attention to their demands is through disrupting traffic.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
