Israel: 200 companies allow employees to take leave for anti-Netanyahu protests

The Business Forum of Israel announced this Sunday that it is giving its employees carte blanche to be absent from work and attend this week’s anti-government protests. ”This is an emergency and those who are interested should be allowed to participate in the democratic event,” indicated the forum, which guaranteed that there will be no sanctions for workers who attend the protests that will take place in Jerusalem for four consecutive days.

The Israel Business Forum brings together the country’s 200 largest firms and the majority of private sector workers,

In addition, dozens of technology companies, a thriving flagship sector of the Israeli economy, have also said that their employees can join the protests without sanctions.

Civil society groups and hostage families will begin a four-day protest in front of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) this Sunday afternoon to demand that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahuand to the political class an agreement to release all those kidnapped by Hamas in Loop and the calling of new elections.

The protesters will begin a march at 6:15 p.m. through the Givat Ram neighborhood – where Israel’s power structures are located – to the Knesset, where they plan to camp for four days, during which night protests will also be held.

Speakers taking part in the protests include opposition chief Yair Lapid; relatives of Hamas victims and hostages; as well as Moshe Radman, one of the leaders of the protests against judicial reform that took over the streets of Israel throughout 2023, a movement that now merges with that of the families of the captives to call for early elections in the country.

Tens of thousands of people took part in mass protests across the country last night, as weekly demonstrations by hostage families in Tel Aviv took a dramatic turn as speakers called on attendees to “take to the streets” and join Anti-government protesters in the heart of the city.

Until now, both groups held weekly protests every Saturday, but separately, since until now the families preferred to demand only an agreement for the release of hostages, without further political connotations. “The demonstrations are over, the protests have just begun,” the president tweeted. Spokesperson for the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, Haim Rubinstein.

Police made more than a dozen arrests last night and deployed water cannons to disperse protests in Tel Aviv, where some demonstrators blocked main roads.

There were also clashes with police in Jerusalem, where about 200 protesters broke police barriers to demonstrate about 100 meters from the prime minister’s official residence; as well as in front of his private holiday home in Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast, where in both cases they asked him to resign.