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"A welfare state is (also) a place where its citizens receive fair wages," get free or low-cost healthcare, other social benefits, and have caring officials who provide them.
"This is a long-range struggle, and it doesn't matter if Bibi falls in a week, a month or a year," he said. "Bibi will fall. So will (Yuval) Steinitz (Israel's finance minister), and so will (Avigdor) Lieberman," Israel's fascist foreign minister/deputy prime minister.
Activist Dror Israel put it another way, saying:
"We are not against a specific person. We're against a policy. We are for a welfare state" that serves all Israelis, not just its privileged few like in America, Britain, and other most other countries.
Arab citizens called for mutual cooperation. In fact, crowds cheered Hamoudi Hujeirat saying, "We are one people."
Raja Za'atara, from the disadvantaged Arab Wadi Nisnas neighborhood, said, "In the Wadi, not many people eat cottage cheese," referring to one of the protest symbols because of its high price. "But a hungry child is a hungry child," he said, "and it doesn't matter if he is Arab or Jewish. This struggle gives hope to everyone."
In fact, social injustice affects all Israeli workers. However, Arabs (one-fifth of the population) are especially impacted, treated more like fifth column threats than citizens.
At the same time, hope never dies when enough people believe. Addressing Haifa thousands in Arabic, writer Sami Michael said:
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