BICOM

Saturday night will present the Israeli social protest movement with its most substantial test yet, as hundreds of thousands are expected to attend demonstrations in Tel Aviv and several other cities around Israel. Organisers have termed Saturday’s event as the ‘March of the Million’ and hope to surpass their previous achievement of 300,000 demonstrators who marched in early August. Saturday is seen as an important test for the protest movement and a large turnout will create momentum for its continuation into the winter months.

The demonstrations, which began 52 days ago as a spontaneous protest over housing prices, have attracted unprecedented political attention and media coverage. Though it is unclear whether the protesters will turn to mainstream political activity, they have already succeeded in challenging Israel’s public agenda, which was traditionally dominated by security and diplomatic issues. Conversely, the protests have raised the social and economic challenges many Israeli face and have succeeded in garnering support from across the political spectrum.