Low turnout, high enthusiasm at social protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem

Another hot summer? Demonstrators bearing protest signs calling for social justice, higher-quality education and equal opportunity gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square and Jerusalem’s Gan Hasus Saturday night for social protest rallies, which some called the “Hebrew Spring.”

Residents of Haifa, Kiryat Shmona and several other cities in the North also took to the streets.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said there were more than a thousand protesters in Tel Aviv but did not have nationwide figures.

Nine people were arrested for blocking roads.

Marches from three different Tel Aviv neighborhoods to Rabin Square, where the central rally took place, kicked off the Saturday protest. Later on, crowds of protesters blocked major thoroughfares in the city, leading to the arrest of several demonstrators.

In Jerusalem, hundreds of demonstrators briefly blocked the junction adjacent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence at 10 pm. They then walked to the residence, drums beating and banners flying, cheering and chanting excitedly as they moved.

Their signs called for “more public housing” and “an egalitarian society.” One said, “the protests will not end until the Knesset quits,” while another declared, “we are against the government; the government is against us.”

As last summer, an oft-repeated chant was, “The people demand social justice.” Several national flags were flown in Jerusalem, along with some red flags and a Meretz banner. Passing drivers hooted at the protesters — most of whom were in their 20s and secular — though whether in support or frustration at the blocked street wasn’t clear.

Saturday’s demonstrations were to protest not just the financial difficulties of the lower strata of Israeli society, but also Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz’s recent controversial decision to join Netanyahu’s coalition government. For many of the demonstrators, the memory of last year’s widespread protest movement is still fresh.

The Saturday rally was held alongside similar rallies around the world to mark the date of the start of last year’s wave of protests, which kicked off in Spain in May 2011.

However, the turnout was much lower than last year’s rallies, when hundreds of thousands marched and protest camps popped up in city centers. The 2011 Social Justice campaign spread like wildfire and attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters, only to fizzle out at the end of the summer. However, if the organizers of Saturday’s rallies are to be believed, more is yet to come.

“An entire generation is losing hope because of a minority which

has seized the fruits of the economy and is living off our money,” read a statement on the social justice movement’s official website. “They are exploiting us and our natural resources due to greed … the democratic institutions have been rendered meaningless; they control the media in order to put the public to sleep. We have woken up – and not just to complain.”

The statement went on to call for “a democratic world in which values such as liberty, equality and fraternity grow stronger and in which we all possess the right to the pursuit of happiness and economic welfare as individuals and communities.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.