Biggest rally in Israel’s history presses PM

TEL AVIV, (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands marched  today for lower living costs in the largest such rally in  Israel’s history, bolstering a social change movement and  mounting pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take  on economic reform.
Protest leaders called it “the moment of truth” for the  grassroots movement that has swollen since July from a cluster  of student tent-squatters into a countrywide mobilisation of  Israel’s middle class.
“An entire generation wants a future,” read one banner as   demonstrators flooded the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and   cities throughout Israel, shouting “the people demand social  justice.”
Netanyahu has warned he would not be able to satisfy all the  protesters’ demands, ranging from tax cuts, to expansion of free  education and bigger government housing budgets.
Organisers said over 450,000 people took part in the  demonstrations. Police put the number at at least 300,000.
Protests on that scale in Israel, with a population of 7.7  million, are usually held over issues of war and peace.
“Tonight is the pinnacle moment of a historic protest,” Amir  Rochman, 30, an activist from Israel’s Green Party said.
“Israel will no longer be the same,” Itzik Shmuli, head of  the National Student Union and one of the protest leaders said  at the rally. “Our new Israel demands real change in the  priorities of its government”.