Marching from Habima Square to the government offices on Kaplan Street, protesters filled the streets with the same chants as the year before. Like last summer, most chants centered on demands of social justice and the return of a welfare state.
Signs and chants called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to resign, calling the government corrupt. But save for a few signs from Meretz and communist parties, protesters made it clear that they were not entirely welcoming even of socially left-leaning politicians.
"Bibi, Shelly, it's the same revolution," demonstrators chanted, referring to Labor leader Shelly Yechimovich.
Though the demonstration lacked the large stages and organized speeches of earlier protests, speakers' corners popped up along Kaplan Street as the march came to an end.
While some protesters preached about equality not only in military service but also in human rights and gender and sexual-orientation, others appeared to have a more personal message.
Telling a thin crowd how he received a parking ticket that morning while visiting the beach, one soap-box speaker who did not want to identify himself called on his audience to "go out and steal back [from the state]" the next morning.
Meanwhile, about 150 protesters bearing signs calling for social justice and more government spending in the periphery marched down the emptied Tel Aviv promenade from north to south on Saturday night.
Organizers of the gathering, which aimed to be an alternative to the larger demonstration that was taking place at the same time at Rabin Square, said they set up a separate protest because they believed the other event had become politicized.
"The social justice movement has succeeded in gaining the attention of the public, but some conflicts within the leadership of the movement occurred which is why we are here," said Rahum Herzl, of Nahariya, who was one of the organizers. "Right now, for instance, there is a protest in Haifa organized by Hadash," a Jewish-Arab socialist party.
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