the following display of pitas that says "one pita per day" was created as a protest outside the home of Idit Silman, who collapsed the previous government, ostensibly, over the fact that the Supreme Court instructed the government to enforce the law that security guards should not check people entering hospitals for chametz

The train lines go down often enough (today a line was down for a significant portion of the day due to an electrical fault) that I am not sure the protestors need to threaten to block the trains. 

Kikar is reporting on an interesting battle taking place right now in RBS D, a similar battle to one that has taken place in many cities and neighborhoods with mixed populations - basically a power struggle for controlling the tone of the neighborhood or city.

Netanyahu is a loser. Netanyahu blinked first. Netanyahu miscalculated, multiple times. Netanyahu is slipping.  We beat Netanyahu. 

There is a big fight going on about tomorrow's protest. The protest group is planning to disrupt traffic all over the place but mroe specifically they are going to be holding a large protest in Bnei Braq, ostensibly because the Haredi community, via its political leadership, is extremely supportive of the judicial reform (and behind the scenes pushing for it).

According to news reports, the pilot who headed the pilots protest about refusing to serve due to the judicial reforms that will turn Israel into a dictatorship has been released from his duties and removed from the elite unit in which he has served..

UTJ and Shas both represent communities that mostly don't serve in the IDF, by choice. That is not completely true for Shas, as many of their constituents do serve in the IDF, but we can call it a wash because some from the Hatzionut Hadatit and Otzman Yehudit parties also do not serve, though the overwhelming majority do. 

I saw this cute sign from the protests last night....

Zeev Alperovitz of Merkaz Inyanim, a Haredi news media outfit not found on the Internet (that I know of), is reporting on an upcoming series of laws soon to be passed, or at least proposed. This series of laws is being seen as an anti-Haredi blitz of legislation, and MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) is supposedly working his connections to thwart them in advance from being raised and/or passed, campaigning quietly for support among religious and right wing coalition MKs.

Remember the "pay for protest" program that went live for Lag B'Omer, in which the thugs who were looking to fight with the police and thwart the official Lag B'Omer arrangement with a price list for forms of protest including getting beaten by police, getting arrested, etc?

The Tikvah Chadasha (aka New Hope) faction of the Knesset, headed by Minister Gideon Saar, came to Bet Shemesh yesterday to meet with city leadership on various issues.

The Great Challa Protest of 2020. 

in Jerusalem a protest near the train tracks of the Jerusalem Light Rail led to someone getting run over by the train (only lightly injured).

The incident was caught on camera...

the protest was against the drafting of Haredim to the IDF..

those damn Zionists! (jk)
even in China, in Tiananmen Square, back in 1989, the tank train didn't run over the protester that stood in its way.

When RBS was a new neighborhood, there were fairly regular protests against various things in the neighborhood - schools, shuls, concerts, groups, whatever - you name it, a group of local swould protest it, often with a shofar in hand.

It has bene a very long time since I remember seeing such a local protest - one in which some local rabbonim got a bunch of local avreichim together and went out and said tehillim (and/or blew shofar) outside the target of their protest.

Today there was such a group on the corner of Ayalon-Kishon, where the construction is taking place. After that they went across the street to the Iryah's engineering offices and said some tehillim there as well and registered their protest.






I asked somebody what was being protested. I was told that they along that corner they are laying sand and dirt and eventually grass and trees, but are not following the laws of shmitta. They are ignoring possible allowed methods for doing this during shmitta, and are simply doing it the normal way. Also, supposedly there are other areas around that are planned to have similar work done, and allowing it to continue at this location as it is now will mean the same transgressions will happen in the other areas as well.

This was particularly surprising. Considering that the mayor of Bet Shemesh is a Haredi fellow, and he has a majority in city council that is Haredi, I don't understand why they cannot just send their askanim and contacts to the mayor and other city council members and insist that the work be done properly. And if they did that, why are they not being listened to? I would assume the city has some say and can register some official protest, even if it is Misrad Hashikun doing the work.

The human chain.

In some form of protest, people get together and line up side by side, holding hands, spreading out over a very large area (depending on how many people participate).

I have participated in one human chain. Prior to the Disengagement, when the Jewish communities of Gush Katif were slated to be removed from Gaza. I stood in the area of Shaar HaGuy and linked together with 200,000 or so other protesters forming a chain from Gush Katif until the Kotel.

Wikipedia tells me that the human chain is used to express political solidarity. Among the notable protests using human chains are included Hands Across America in 1986, protest against violence in East Timor, the Disengagement in Israel, Stop Russia, and a whole bunch of others..

Bet Shemesh is joining the list of protests to use a human chain as its form of expression.

Today, at 6pm, protesters are meeting at "Watermelon Square", otherwise known as, in the original Hebrew, Kikar HaAvatichim, to form a human chain. They will be expressing the demand to split the city of Bet Shemesh into two separate cities.

I don't know historically how successful such human chain protests have been. I know the one we did during the period before the Disengagement did not really do much. I do wonder how many people will show up this evening to form a chain to split Bet Shemesh, though I will not be there.

Just yesterday it was announced that the IDF has recently been allowing soldiers who live in Bet Shemesh to travel in civilian clothes near their homes. The reason is out of concern for their safety - after a number of incidents in which haredi soldiers were attacked by haredi extremists when in uniform.. instead of now being given individual permits, all soldiers form Bet Shemesh area will be allowed to don civilian clothing when going home.
source: Walla News

My initial reaction was mixed - on the one hand it is good to see they are sensitive to their soldiers and not caught in an attitude of banging their heads against the wall and sticking dogmatically to the policy that is on the books. They realize the situation is not good, and are willing to adjust accordingly. That is not always a given in a bureaucracy. On the other hand, how sad it is that the violence, or threat of it, has gotten so great, that the army has to make a blanket rule that Bet Shemesh is too dangerous for soldiers so they can all wear civilian garb...

Well, it turns out that that was not the end of the story. Plenty of people did not like hearing the announcement that Bet Shemesh is a dangerous place for soldiers, and are planning a response.

According to Walla News,a protest march of sorts is being planned. The march will consist of residents, but will mainly be meant for soldiers and reservists, along with supporters, who will march through different parts of the cities, especially through Haredi neighborhoods, to show that they are proud to serve in the IDF and not scared.

The protest march is being organized by Moshe Shitrit, a city councilman from the Likud party. Shitrit is upset that instead of solving the problem, the IDF has moved to a temporary solution. Bet Shemesh is a Zionist city, has raised many soldiers over the years and has lost a number as well, and it is intolerable that residents in Bet Shemesh should be harassed just because they are wearing the IDF uniform. Shitrit also blames Abutbol, the mayor, for not taking a strong stand against the extremists. Shitrit says people can walk around in uniform wherever they want, proudly, and if someone does not like it, they are welcome to pack up and leave the country.

The protest march is being planned for the near future.. some time in the coming days...

It is going to be a hot summer, especially in Bet Shemesh...



.

Lots of people are upset at Minister of Finance Yair Lapid over the budget cuts. All those people who were excited that the incoming Finance Minister would relentlessly take money from the haredim and pump it into the economy and turn Israel into a haven for the Middle Class, are now facing the reality that the haredi issue was not really about the money (the amount of money the haredi parties received is paltry compared to the actual deficit) and the money is going to come, as always, from them, from all of us.

People are shocked and angry. The surveys say there is tremendous disappointment in, and even anger at, the way Yair Lapid has so far performed in his role. Nu, nu. That's politics. People who believe politicians promises are setting themselves up for disappointment.

There is talk now about returning to the social protests of 2 summers ago. Bringing people by the thousands or tens of thousands out to the streets and the plazas and protest the increased taxes and budget cuts. The haredim are going to arrange mass tefilla rallies. As we say in Hebrew (using a phrase that originates from the Neviim), עולם כמנהגו נוהג, or in English, as the world turns, or such is life.

There is one fairly unique, or almost unique, form of protest that is being tried.

One lawyer from Givatayim has filed a complaint with the police for breaking his campaign promises. The lawyer says that as great as the expectations were, so is how great the disappointment is. There is a tremendous difference between what was promised and what was said before and between what is being said now, in as short a time period as just a couple of months.

So, he filed his complaint with the police, claiming that Lapid broke the law (חוק השליחות), and broke elections promises, when he promised to not raise taxes, and he acheived his objective (i.e. to be elected) by deceit.
(source: Mako)

I say this is almost unique because we have had at least a few similar forms of protest, and specifically from the religious side of the political spectrum. It did not involve the police, but I specifically remember two similar cases. One person filed a lawsuit against MK Moshe Gafni for political decisions his party was involved in, and someone sued Aryeh Deri (not an MK at the time) for his involvement in promoting the Oslo Accords that led to the murder of over 1500 Israelis. Not exactly the same as this situation, but not all that different.

I do not expect much to come from this complaint. The police will have to open an investigation, but I suspect they will close it fairly quickly. if it could even possibly lead to anywhere, every politician in the country would suddenly have complaints filed and investigations opened against them for breaking campaign promises.

In the past few days the following notices have been put up around Bet Shemesh (and RBS) (click image to enlarge):

It is a statement of the plans for planning of the new neighborhood of RBS D2 and an announcement of the legal period of time for filing objections.

If you look around Bet Shemesh and RBS, you can see clearly that City Hall has a very difficult time administering the city at acceptable levels with the current level of population. The streets are dirty. The roads are filled with potholes. More and more schools are cropping up in caravans and temporary structures rather than in school buildings, Tipat Chalav had to fire their secretary due to city cutbacks and it is now difficult to get appointments for your childs vaccinations and well-care, etc..

There are a lot of reasons one can oppose the new neighborhoods plans. I am not an expert in many of the issues involved, such as population density, type of construction, adequate business areas being designated, road design, green areas, parks, school buildings, etc. though they are all important issues and there are people dealing with them specifically. In my mind, as stated above, just look around.

The one thing the Iryah of Bet Shemesh has done well in recent years is pass the planning of new neighborhoods and build. In my opinion, the reason to oppose the new neighborhoods is on a temporary basis alone. The Iryah has moved so fast, there is no way it will be able to keep up with the demands of services required, neither for the new residents of said neighborhoods nor for the old residents of Bet Shemesh.

Just look around and see that the city has already not been able to keep up with basic needs of services of its residents. Slow down, catch up, improve city infrastructure, makes city services more efficient, get the budgets on track with the needs of the city, and then worry about new neighborhoods in 6 months or next year or however long it takes. It will be nice to have 15-000-20,000 new neighbors, but the city should first catch up with its current obligations.

There are people arranging forms for filing protests. Someone should be outside of Best Market on Dolev, as well as in other areas around Bet Shemesh, this Friday, and at other times, with forms for signatures. If you agree, if any of the issues make you concerned with the growth unmatched by the ability to render services, make sure you find a few minutes and sign the form.