I went last Saturday to join the protests on Balfour Street in front of Netanyahu’s residence. Here are some thoughts about what I saw:

There are a million unemployed here – and a totally eroded safety net. The fear and terror about the future is palpable -- across the board. From right to left. It’s about the divide between a careless, clueless and out-of-touch ruling class and the rest of us.

It's too early to tell how big a breakout this moment is. But what I can say is that there are hundreds – thousands -- of people in the streets were first time activists, who are being politicized for the first time. Many of the people in the streets now are first time activists.

What feels important to share is the feeling of it. It was *really different from other protests that I’ve been to in Israel-Palestine (which have been many.) Simply put, I was gobsmacked by the energy and feeling of it.

The difference first of all was energetic: it felt like a festival. And I don’t mean that as a criticism in any way. Balfour on Saturday night was happening -- and totally grassroots. There wasn’t a feeling of it being choreographed. No stage with people with mics organizing.

I would say the big thrust of this mobilization is this anti-corruption rage -a coalescing national feeling. And there are a bunch of grassroots groups emerging around the call of “Crime Minister” – the demand that PM Netanyahu should resign and go to jail for corruption.

Once the truth started to come out about how epically the Netanyahu government has mishandled the coronavirus situation -- and how many lives it has put at risk as a result, there is real rage and real fear. The dire economic situation is also getting worse and worse.

That is the rage boiling over against the current regime. So it’s not just about the corruption. It’s about hypocrisy and disconnect from the experience of the vast majority of Israelis – and real rage about the mishandling of the crisis.

I saw younger anti-occupation activists bringing in the call for “Justice for Eyad” (Eyad el-Hallaq, the 25 year-old, unarmed, autistic Palestinian who was shot dead by Israel Police the same week as George Floyd) They held up his image, chanting “Palestinian Lives Matter.”

They are drawing a clear connection between the massive mobilizations against systemic racism and structural violence in the United States and what is happening in Israel-Palestine

And there are the rose girls, who are wearing white shirts, green shirts, and red bandanas –colors of the Palestinian flag, holding banners that say “Free Palestine.”

There are the hippy-ish ones and the real hippies offering free hugs and love. And there are a lot of feminists. For instance, the social workers on strike, who are going topless, getting their messages heard by the media.

And @AymanOdeh came to say that Arabs and Jews are standing together to support the call for democracy.

The sense that I am getting overall is that this is powerful and it’s real. It is a combination of things getting really bad economically and the resurgence of COVID-19 and a recognition of how badly the government has mismanaged it. Something huge is happening. See you Saturday!