Left-wing, anti-Netanyahu protester blasts organizers, says he was promised 10,000 shekels a month

“I was promised NIS 10,000 a month for my [organizing] activities,” Shachar said. “Time passed and I did not see a penny. I was given false excuses, for months and months, and still, nothing.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Veteran left-wing protester Gideon “Gidi” Shachar spoke out about financial corruption within the anti-Netanyahu protest movement to Channel 20 News on Monday evening.

“There is corruption in the Ain Matzav [anti-Netanyahu protest movement] camp,” he told Channel 20 News. “There’s no way I can participate in this. I can see the corruption, that every day, money is moving [under the radar] to the benefit of only themselves [the protest leaders].”

“The funds are going to car rentals, hotel room rentals, and personal equipment for those who are close to the leaders,” he said. “But for us, the simple [protesters], they won’t let us use a generator to charge our mobile phones.”

Shachar criticized Ain Matzav leader Amir Haskel, a retired air force general who recently came under fire for a video in which he made racially charged comments to an Ethiopian Jewish policewoman.

“I was promised NIS 10,000 a month for my [organizing] activities,” he said. “Time passed and I did not see a penny. I was given false excuses, for months and months, and still, nothing.”

“I started to get upset. I saw piles of money going from hand to hand, but I didn’t see a penny.”

Shachar claims that the protest leaders rule the movement with an iron fist, and that those who fail to align with their policies are harassed or expelled from the encampment.

“When I started asking questions, they started harassing me,” he said. “They threw my stuff in the trash so that I would get the hint. Once, I asked to take a shower and they didn’t let me.”

Shachar added that he felt his Mizrahi, or eastern Jewish, background was a factor in why he was mistreated.

“I did not promise a penny to anyone. Not to Gidi or to anyone else,” Haskel responded to Channel 20 News.

He refused to comment on the rental of cars and apartments for activists close to the protest leaders.

Sadi Ben Shitrit, another prominent protest leader, denied the allegations to Channel 20 News.

“Gidi and I haven’t talked for several months, due to a dispute between us over whether or not to have a dialogue with the Bibists [Netanyahu supporters] in a nearby encampment,” he said.

“He never received any promises from me [regarding funding]. I am not funded and never received a penny [for protest activities]. Additionally, I’m not a member of Ain Matzav. I have no interest in responding on behalf of other people or organizations.”