Last update - 00:00 03/06/2007
War protest tent erected to call for PM's resignation taken down
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
Two university students who erected a tent in front of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Jerusalem home as a protest calling for his resignation took it down on Sunday.
Initially, Itai Harari and Zachary Weiner planned to stay in the tent until Olmert resigned. They were joined by hundreds of supporters, including lawmaker Ophir Pines-Paz who also erected a tent.
However when it became clear that he would not do so, they decided to leave the tent in place for 34 days, equal to the duration of the Second Lebanon War.
The call for Olmert's resignation came as a result of harsh criticism of his leadership during the war by the partial report of the Winograd Committee, which was set up to investigate the government's actions in the war.
One day after the report's publication in late April, Harari and Weiner marched more than 60kms from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and pitched the tent.
They expected many more protesters to join them after the Rabin Square rally in Tel Aviv drew 150,000 demonstrators. However, Harari said the small turnout was not disappointing, just 'sobering.' "The reality check came in the third week, when we realized masses of citizens were not going to come," he said. "It's not that people don't care, they just don't believe we can make a difference."
Another protest reiterating the call for Olmert to step down was planned for Sunday evening.