Israeli protest movement hopes to win over voters in local elections

After dominating political conversation in Israel for the past eight months, the protest movement against the judicial coup – which has brought millions of Israelis out to the streets – made a strategic decision.

In the nationwide municipal elections on October 31, various protest groups will field candidates in mayoral and city council races, hoping that voters will use the local political sphere to send a resolute national message against the Netanyahu government’s attempts to change Israeli democracy.

On Haaretz Weekly, two Tel Aviv City Council candidates join host Allison Kaplan Sommer to discuss the bold move.

Noah Efron is head of the Green Party – which, together with Meretz and a list of protest activists, is running as the “New Contract” slate in Tel Aviv. He says on the podcast that he believes when we wake up in Israel on November 1, “there will be council members and a number of mayors whose identity was forged primarily politically in these protests. It will be dramatic.”

Efron, who served on the Tel Aviv Municipality in the past, also discusses the complexities of integrating the protest movement into the framework of local politics, calling it “an extremely exciting challenge to turn the big words with capital letters like ‘Freedom’ and ‘Democracy’ into policy.”

Together with Efron is Inbal Orpaz, a high-tech marketing executive and active member of the tech protest. She talks about what has driven members of her industry – who were previously politically uninvolved, focusing instead on their world of startups and company sales – to become some of the most outspoken and active leaders of the protests. She discusses her motivations for becoming active in the protest movement – and her recent decision to run for city councilor alongside Efron.

“When this government was elected, I felt as if all of my identities were under attack: as a woman, as a secular person, as someone who’s part of the tech sector. I understood if I want to live here – and I want to live here – to live in Israel and to live in Tel Aviv, I must fight for the future of this country. Living in the place they want this country to become is not an option for me.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.