"If Bibi had dared to say before the elections that he planned to impose VAT on fruit and vegetables, or had even hinted at it, I have no doubt that wouldn't have won even five seats," Shimon Darvish, chairman of the traders committee of Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market told "Globes" today.
Darvish and his fellow stallholders will hold a demonstration this afternoon against imposing VAT. They will be joined by representatives of markets in Ramla, Beersheva, Lod, Tel Aviv's Shuk Hacarmel and Shuk Hatikva, and Shuk Haifa.
The Mahane Yehuda market has traditionally been a stronghold of support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Bibi is committing political suicide, without a doubt," Darvish claims. Reminded of the fact that the same was said of Netanyahu when he was Minister of Finance in 2003-2005, and in Mahane Yehuda too, he declared, "As far as I'm concerned, you can record this conversation, and let's talk in another three years. I'm telling you that Bibi will not dare come to the market; he's wise enough not to do that."
Darvish says that the government's measure shows that it is cut off from the poorer sections of society. "I call on the minister of finance and the prime minister to come along with me for a day and to look these people in the eye. They will see the pain and distress of whole families that live on bread, basic cheese, and fruit and vegetables. The markets are the country's biggest soup kitchen. But Steinitz and Bibi don't buy in the market. Let's see them hit the wealthiest, the ones they're afraid to touch."
The market traders are mainly angry over Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz's claim that many of them evade taxes. "Where does this effrontery come from?," Darvish asks. "It's a shameful thing to have said. Our war is that of the disadvantaged, against unending attacks on their welfare."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 29, 2009
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009