Although Israel is by all definitions a fully capitalist country these days, there are many on the left who miss the good old days, when socialism reigned – and many of them will be in Rabin Square Thursday celebrating May Day, the international workers' rights day that comes out annually on May 1. Many of the protesters will take the opportunity to demand more rights for workers and higher wages, and decry the “inhumanity” of capitalism.
But for the third year in a row, another group will be protesting – commemorating the deaths of millions at the hands of the police and army forces of the Communist countries that created May Day. Members of the New Liberal Movement in Israel will light 1,000 candles in the Square in memory of those killed by Communist forces.
Boaz Arad, head of the Movement, said that “we feel the need to remember the victims of the socialist and Communist regimes in the presence of those who praise the worst murderers in history in the name of the advancement of workers' rights. Josef Stalin killed between 8 million and 61 million people when he ran the Soviet Union, while Mao Zedong's attempts to modernize China got between 32 and 40 million people killed. About three million people starved to death in Ukraine, and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia killed another 1.4-2.2 million.”
A true holiday for workers, said Arad, would be “making it easier for employers and workers to get their jobs done without being enslaved to the government. When taxes are abolished and bureaucracy is ended, we will all be able to enjoy a booming economy and a lowered cost of living in Israel.”