The social protest of 2023 opened today and is no less powerful than that of 2011, perhaps even surpassing it.
This will not be a protest of tents, guitars and songs into the night on Tel Aviv Boulevard where a person was killed.
It does not come from the bottom, from young people who cannot afford to pay rent and shop at the supermarket and are willing to sleep outside in the cold.
This time there is a strong financial body at the forefront, which decided, with admirable courage, to take action and be the torch that protects democracy, loves people wherever they are.
The decision of Discount Bank, joined in the meantime by other entities, to announce that it will not grant credit to a business or entity that discriminates against customers on the basis of religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, is no less than an earthquake.
A poignant, unequivocal social statement, at the end of which there is a clear marking of a border: we will not lend a hand to those who want to destroy Israeli democracy.
Discount Bank: "Businesses that fail customers will not receive credit"
The board of directors considered and decided to take a risk.
CEO of Discount Bank Uri Levin (Photo: Mark Israel Salem and Abshalom Sashoni)
When racism rears its ugly head, and the members of the coalition and the incoming government, who will be sworn in on Thursday, either support discrimination or remain silent, and minorities in society are scared to death and don't go out into the streets, a powerful body like Discount says - so much.
Want to discriminate against customers based on their differences?
No problem.
Go find someone else to finance you.
The business world is characterized by cowardice.
CEOs prefer not to take an explicit position on any explosive matter, lest it be swallowed up by the company's profit line. That's how they were raised, not to get involved in matters that are not theirs. Look at how businessmen juggle, giving a donation to Likud with one hand and Lich Atid with the other, raising money for Otzma Yehudit And at the same time to Meretz, both, so that God forbid they do not harm in any situation.
And here comes Discount Bank, which is subject to strict regulation from all directions, and shows that it is also possible otherwise.
Not only to look with distant indifference at catastrophes happening under your magnificent building and hide behind the expensive suit and tie, but to stand behind the slogan they pump at us everywhere, that they "want you more".
You, that's everyone.
Tabis, Arabs, Druze, secular as well as ultra-Orthodox and national religious.
Thanks, but no thanks.
The designated ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir (photo: Yaniv Khalif, Yaniv Khalif)
The bank's board of directors carefully considered the decision and its consequences, not only the loss of customers who might boycott it, but also, and above all, the competitive position in which it placed itself vis-à-vis the members of the Knesset and the ministers of the incoming government, those who sit in the key positions and could try to harm it.
In the difficult new year spread that awaits us, we can only hope that Discount is just the beginning, and that more and more liberal businesses will join it, who have the good of the country and its citizens in front of their eyes.
Because as it seems right now, the salvation of the people of Israel will not come from the politicians or the people.
Unfortunately, he has already given up.
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