Avir Kara, the leader of the protest by the self-employed business owners - the "Shulmanim", joined the Yamina Party led by Naftali Bennett and will run in the elections for the 24th Knesset.
The "Shulmanim" group unites business owners and the self-employed in Israel. The group's activities became famous with the COVID-19 outbreak in their struggle for the rights of business owners.
In a Facebook post, Kara attacked the Likud and its leader, who said he refused to address the difficulties of business owners in Israel: "Only yesterday we saw the Prime Minister's being evasive in front of the workers' committees that don't serve the small worker; they always say that they represent the weak workers while they're actually the ones who create them," Kara wrote.
"This monopoly represents the smug leadership, non-transparent mechanisms and those that strongly oppose any efficiency in the public sector. Why not oppose it? Shulmanim pay the bill. Even the Prime Minister himself said and retracted it, for exactly which reason this post was written.
"The Likud and its leader were quick to call the pressure groups, explain, apologize, twist things. In the State of Israel, anyone who works for his own narrow interest and against the general public receives an award. The message to the public? 'Form a group, threaten to do damage, and earn hush-money. We intend to change that, Shulman will no longer pay."
"The independent business owner and the self-employed who want to create value and create jobs are punished. And these are not just the old, entrenched committees, the ones that don't work with the best of their minds but with their messy mechanisms. These are all the pressure bodies that are in charge of the Likud, which affect the Likud.
"This is a standards institute that many of us, Shulmanim, are trampled under its opacity and its bureaucratic burden. Government ministries that don't answer the phone while the entire public has collapsed and in particular that self-employed people are collapsing under lockdown in the coronavirus crisis.
"These are the regulators who bury us under mountains of bureaucracy and all the reforms don't interest or move them. Anyone who works against free enterprise, against the success of the diligent self-employed - has the upper hand."
Kara continued: "And the Likud? They stand aside and shrug, despite more than a decade in power. In a conversation with the Prime Minister, we discovered that everyone's guilty - the lawyers, the officials, Kahlon, Ben-Gurion. Only the ruling party doesn't take responsibility. On the one hand we heard from Prime Minister Dr. Jekyll that there's a need for reform in the Histadrut, and on the other hand, Prime Minister Mr. Hyde immediately called that Histadrut to embrace it and assure it that rot will continue to thrive within the walls of public service.
"By the way, it's particularly unfortunate that there are excellent and dedicated workers in the public sector. They too are victims of the racket. They are t-e-r-r-i-f-i-e-d to confront and afraid to mess with anyone who refuses to understand that we're paying his salary, and we demand an efficient public sector that helps growth and doesn't suppress it.
"So there was no hesitation. Although I met great people with good intentions in the Likud and despite the cooperation offered by some of the Likud's elected representatives, the Likud can't deliver. Maybe they don't want to, either. It's very important for us to express and attach as always to the content and essence the main reasons why we can not join the Likud. We will have to offer a better way, to change reality forever."