Dozens of self-employed workers in the fields of entertainment and event-planning protested last week in front of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s home in Ra’anana. The protesters demanded compensation for revenue lost during the Omicron wave of the coronavirus and the continued implementation of “green pass” requirements at event halls and large-scale gatherings.
“Every time they considered a shutdown they caused a panic that led people to cancel events and to not even consider planning events in the coming months,” said Alice Hazan in an interview with Davar. Hazan owns the “David’s Harp” event hall in Beit Shemesh and serves as a member of the leadership of the Event Hall Owners’ Union.
“Lieberman said 2021 was an excellent year,” Hazan added. “Excellent for whom? I haven’t worked for months. Half of my events were canceled, and the ones that went on had half the number of people.”
According to Hazan, “Our income was slashed but our expenditures stayed the same. The government doesn’t take any of our expenditures into account. I pay outrageous property taxes, 470 thousand shekels ($146,514) a year. Delaying collection of value-added tax by a few days doesn’t help, and loans from the state just put us into a deeper hole.”
Musician Nadav Segel said, “Dear Mister Prime Minister, Mister Naftali ‘Economy First’ Bennett. I’d like to inform you of a situation that you are unaware of. Thousands of freelancers in the fields of entertainment, events, tourism, and conferences are still out of work. Many of those people wake up every morning without any savings, without any property, and the first thing that happens to them in the morning is they get a call from the collections department of the credit card company and the bank manager. Even when a little money comes in, it’s immediately swallowed up in debts.”
“You, thank goodness, don’t have these problems, but we do,” added Segel. “Here are two things you need to do immediately: first of all spend money so that we can have a little room to breathe, so that we’ll know that we can buy food and pay rent. Second, compensate us for the fourth and fifth waves, and create a plan for any future waves.”
Linda Avitan, who operates a sound-system company, also expressed frustration with Bennett. “It’s time that you came out and looked us in the eye, it’s time you paid attention to the little people, it’s time that you kept your promises. You made an entire career off of us, and now you ignore us. You can’t run away from this. You said that you’re one of us, shame on you if you don’t come out and meet us face to face.”
The demonstrators demanded a realistic compensation plan from the government and vowed to continue their protest until a suitable plan is released. A meeting held last week between protestors and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, as well as a meeting with Bennett, failed to produce an agreement.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Sam Edelman
