`Southerners,' led by Vicki Knafo, and `Jerusalemites' battle over protest styles
The single mothers' protest against welfare cuts took an ugly turn late on Monday. There is suddenly talk of the protesters dividing into two camps, they even have names - the Southerners and the Jerusalemites, who also have the alternative name of the Panthers Strike Back.
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The Southerners are led by the first single mother to march on the capital, Vicki Knafo, while Ayala Sebeg heads the Jerusalem group. Bracha Arguani, one of the Southerners' leaders, does not like the division. Arguani, herself a Jerusalem resident, represents a group of women from the capital.
She and some colleagues in the Knafo-Ilana Azoulai camp understand that this division will not help the women achieve the goals they set out with and took to the protest camp in the rose garden opposite the government complex.
On Monday a group of six women, headed by Knafo, arrived at the gates of the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry to meet Minister Zevulun Orlev and found a group of 15 women, from the Jerusalem group, already waiting.
A spat developed between the two groups, becoming violent at points. "It is hard for me to explain how I feel," said Azoulai who found herself being attacked at one point. "First of all I checked to see if I were still a woman. Heaven help us if women behave like that - it's an absolute embarrassment."
The groups' squabbling led to the cancelation of the meeting with Orlev. Instead, the two groups met separately yesterday with the director-general of the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, Dov Goldberger.
The differences between the two groups can be summed up like this: Knafo and friends prefer a "quiet," non-violent protest that includes marches, demonstrations, setting up protest tents and meeting decision-makers in an attempt to sway them to support their cause.
The Jerusalemites believe that such a protest will not get them anywhere and want to adopt a more militant strategy. Sebeg told Goldberger that through Knafo's protest style "we'll get nothing." Sebeg adamantly rejects any attempts to give her and her friends a violent image. "We didn't use violence against anyone," she said. "We don't believe in violence; that's a lie and a slur."
But she says the spontaneous demonstrations stage is over. "It is not that we do not respect Knafo's method, but if we continue being nice now, we won't get anything. We need a reorganization of fighting women. Women who do not sit quietly, who make noise, go crazy and demonstrate. Don't get me wrong, we have no intention of harming anyone or throwing grenades, but rather lying in roads, blocking junctions and doing something else every day. This is the only way to bring about a revolution, like the women in Argentina demonstrating over the disappearance of their children."
Sebeg claims Knafo refused to accept this line of action. She also accuses them of keeping their plans a secret and not including other women in them. Azoulai however is adamant that the format of the single mothers' battle will not change.
Eti Yekutiel, one of the leaders of the Knafo group, said yesterday that "we've really reached bottom. We do not need to fight each other like this, but [fight] the Finance Ministry."
While her friends were meeting Goldberger yesterday, Yekutiel was making her way to the Zavta auditorium in Tel Aviv along with Ran Melamed of the "Shatil" organization which helps establish and steer social volunteer groups and is advising the single mothers on how to advance their cause.
The two, along with a team at Zavta, the Kibbutz Movement and the Center for Progressive Judaism, are organizing a special cultural evening for the single mothers.
"The protest will not be broken," vows Yekutiel. "We have our agenda and ways when to apply pressure, even if they are too refined for some people."
The Southerners plan to enlist their children in the battle at the capital to hand flowers with a piece of paper explaining their demands to every passing MK or official. "We are talking here about children, not numbers, I want them to see my flower," says Yekutiel.
Attorney Ella Gera, head of the Woman's Lobby, also does not believe that the protest is dying out. "It is a fact that all the social groups have listened to Vicki Knafo without her even having to shout. I am full of praise for them," she says.
By yesterday, there was still no progress in their struggle. In their meetings with Goldberger, the single mothers heard of no headway. The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry believes that there is no chance of the treasury annuling the cuts to welfare benefits. It is thus focusing its energies on getting the ministry to agree to spreading the cut over three years while also creating new job opportunities.
As one single mother, a former drug addict, put it to Goldberger yesterday, "coming off welfare is like coming off drugs. You can't do it in one go, but gradually." Orlev is also pushing for the government to promise no further cuts until the end of next year. The treasury, however, is not especially enthusiastic about the idea.
Knafo and her friends will today attend a meeting of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Children and explain their plight. Sebeg is meanwhile planning an event at the protest tent but refused to give any further details
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