Daphni Leef
Daphni LeefIsrael News photo: Yoni Kempinski

Dafni Leef, one of the main organizers of a series of “social justice” protests in 2011 and 2012, slammed Finance Minister Yair Lapid in a press conference Tuesday.

“Yair Lapid, you rode on the coattails of the social protest, and overnight you turned into a ‘next generation’ crueler than Netanyahu’s policies,” she accused.

“You know how to talk about the protest, but you don’t know how to do it. You play with people’s hopes. You’re cynical and a liar,” she continued.

Leef recalled the protests of 2011, and said, “It’s been two years. You can’t say we didn’t give the public representatives a chance to come meet the community, the people whose child benefits are going to be cut, who already don’t have much. They don’t have another two years.”

“What’s more important: a government that stands on shaky legs and false promises, or millions of citizens who pay their taxes and want to live with dignity?” Leef demanded. She added, “That why I say that if the budget passes, this government must not continue.”

Protester Doreen Kfir spoke at the press conference as well. Kfir, a Likud party voter, said she was criticized after taking part in previous protests and giving media interviews criticizing the high costs of vacations, trips to swimming pools and similar expenses.

“I was shocked to hear that Members of Knesset recently called me things like ‘populist, leftist, anarchist,’” she said. “My father, of blessed memory, is of course spinning in his grave.”

“Why do they call me a leftist or anarchist? Because I am fighting for my child,” she declared.

At the end of the press conference, organizers called for mass protests on Saturday night.