Poverty.
Poverty.Flash 90

The latest trend among leftists who were shocked by their defeat at the polls Tuesday is an apparently spontaneous campaign called “Don't Give,” which calls on people to stop donating to the poorer Israelis and the socio-economically weaker regions known as “the periphery,” because these Israelis insist on voting for Likud, in election after election.

The campaign's name in Hebrew, Lo Latet, is a reference to Latet (“To Give”), a major charity group that collects donations for the needy.

The campaign started as a Facebook trend, which gathered steam after it was reported about in the news, and has turned into a Facebook page with over 3,000 likes.

"As the holiday of Pesach approaches, I would like to remind you that there are hundreds of people who have no way of celebrating,” wrote one Lo Latet poster. “It's important that you do not give them a single shekel.”

He added sarcastically: “After all, elected a government that will change their situation, so why interfere and ruin things? Happy holiday!”

"From now on, I want peace of mind,” wrote another poster. “From now on, it's every one for himself. Don't tell me about minimum wages and people whose salary doesn't carry them through the month. I don't want to hear about hungry children or single mothers in distress, about distressed contract workers, or eroded pensions. Don't preach to me about 'the people's choice and majority rule', I understand what democracy is, but from now on, let every person take care of himself.”

The poster went on to say that she does not want to see “reports about crowded hospitals. Frustrated doctors and overflowing classrooms. Don't read out the percentage of high school students who pass the matriculation tests in the periphery or the poverty index... don't call me to ask for donations and don't tell me how bad you have it... We were given a ballot to vote with, the nation has spoken.”

"Dear southerners,” added another participant in the collective tirade, addressing the relatively poorer residents of the South. “Unemployment, the cost of living, the rise in prices of housing, factories closing down, terminated 50-year-olds without a future, wars, Kassams, neglect of the periphery. I don't want to hear a single word. Just shut up and that's it.”

Labor MK Itzik Shmoli, who lives in a low-income area of Lod as part of a social project, commented: “There is a lot of frustration from the results of the elections in the periphery, because at the moment of truth, it tends to ignore the simple fact that the Right's economic policy is what [hurts it so badly], and also because the ones leading most of the legislation and struggles for it are the centrist and leftist parties. If my neighbor in Lod thanks me for the struggle against the disconnection of water [to people who haven't paid their bills], and at the same time he rips my party's sign from the staircase, just because Bibi said the code word – 'leftists' or 'Arabs' – then we have failed here.”

He added, however, that the talk about abandoning the struggle for the periphery is out of place. Instead, he explained, “The challenge in the coming years is to connect the intense activity that we carry out for the periphery, to the change in consciousness that needs to take place there.”