Michal Tzur Shalov, president of Kaltora, in an interview with Tal Shalov for "Sofash Shalov", at her home in Zichron Ya'akov, February 9, 2023 (Photo: Yotam Ronen and Michael Braham)
The high-tech protest against the legal reform is intensifying week by week - more and more companies and foundations are announcing their decision to transfer funds from Israeli accounts abroad, dozens of companies joined the initiative to shut down the economy on Monday, and the industry executives are taking an active part in organizing the civil protests and demonstrations. "If the reform passes, in its current form , it will more or less crash high-tech," warns Michal Zur-Shelo, founder and president of the "Klatura" company and one of the prominent women in the Israeli high-tech industry, in an interview with Walla!.
"The reform has already started to have negative effects on investments and concerns of investors and entrepreneurs.
There are thousands who have already quietly transferred their funds abroad. There are many, many businesses that are quietly building their own protection plan for their company. And many, many companies are considering whether to establish a subsidiary here, a development center. Things will not happen in one fell swoop and eventually we will wake up in a few years And we will return to the orange season."
Tzur Shalov, a doctor of law and an entrepreneur, in the late 1990s with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett founded the startup "Sayota", which dealt in information security. In 2006, after a famous exit of 145 million dollars, Bennett turned to politics, and she founded Kaltura , which provides a video platform and cloud services, and employs about 700 people, of which about 400 are in Israel. In recent weeks, it has been one of the leaders in organizing in the high-tech industry to protest against the revolution in the judicial system led by the government.
"If the reform goes through in its current form, it will crush high-tech."
Michal Tzur-Shelo (Photo: Yotam Ronan)
"In high-tech, they fear both the security and the economy of the country, which relies on a relatively limited business and manufacturing sector, which, among other things, includes high-tech, which is its significant engine," she says.
"Most of all, what scares everyone is that there will be great uncertainty in the country, because in a situation where the government has unlimited power, it is impossible to know what laws will be passed. Who assures me that women will even be able to be elected to the Knesset, that they will not impose taxes, that they will not nationalize our pensions. Everyone says 'What if? Things like this won't happen', but the method should be such that it guarantees that each of these freedoms can be protected."
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will come and tell you - during my term of office, high-tech is thriving.
trust me
"Indeed, Bibi deserves a lot of credit for the fact that high-tech here in Israel has been built and prospered. One of the reasons that high-tech has prospered is because there is a very fine texture of governmental structures and a culture that is democratic and pluralistic. We are all in all a very conservative business sector: we say - there is a system here that works, the security And the economy is excellent. And Bibi - you have built a very strong sector and a strong economy here, something that works with very delicate balances. Don't destroy it with a wave of your hand. Just before you go and destroy things with a 500 kilo hammer, you need to stop and think because many times there is no going back after you smash them."
Some will claim that you yourselves are crushing the economy, in fact, by protesting, panicking, and withdrawing funds abroad
"Hi-techists are not experts in economics or law, but are led by the investors who invest here in the State of Israel. A significant percentage of the money that goes into high-tech is foreign money. These are tens of billions of dollars that have flowed and hopefully will continue to flow into Israel in the coming years. But in the end, investors ask themselves whether I Want to invest in a place where there is great economic uncertainty and he sits and thinks where to put the pension money he manages? In the US and Ireland or Hungary, Russia or Israel that will become a similar regime?".
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To the full article
"Bibi built a strong sector - don't destroy it with a wave of your hand" (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)
The cyber company "Wiz" joined the "Papaya Global" company this week and announced the withdrawal of part of its funds from Israel, in response to the moves led by the government.
Zur estimates that these measures will only worsen.
"Right now we are seeing the first buds of the reactions of investors and economists. I have not found a single leading economist who says that there is no harm and no risk in these moves. In the end, investors are rational, they hear and listen. If I understood correctly, the Bank of Israel also advised the pension funds in Israel to consider whether to spread the their investments and to invest abroad as well, so if the Bank of Israel comes and says this, what will the companies that come and now want to establish a new enterprise do?
They will be afraid that they won't be able to raise money and will also look at it a few years ahead, we are only at the beginning of the move."
Are you also considering such steps?
"As an entrepreneur, first of all, I am optimistic, first of all I try to do everything possible to make this move stop. I think there is still time for those in charge of the country to sit down and think if they want to break what was built here for 75 years with one dust. So right now I am investing the main My efforts in trying to convince that it is necessary to stop for a moment and come to talks because there is a large layer of people here that wants to sit down and talk and find a solution that will serve the country for many years."
Right-wing voters say - there were elections, this is a government that won the trust of the people, this is a protest of losers.
The high-tech protest is also said to be a protest of losers
"The elections were legitimate and so were the results. But many of the Likud voters did not vote for this reform either, they did not vote for a governmental coup and no one explained to them that this is a world in which the whole ground will be dropped from under the courts and they will be made political. So there are ways to fix it, there are many Things that require correction both in the political system and in our structures and institutions and probably in the judicial system, just let's stop and talk about it."
So if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu summoned you to a meeting tomorrow, what would you say to him, what can be fixed?
"I would say to him, 'Come stop for a moment and listen.' manage it aggressively and with the swing of a hammer. Such a move, changing the system of government in the country, is not something that is passed in a few weeks and without broad agreement. I am afraid, when I read polls that say that 30 percent of the public fears that there will be a civil war here. Which prime minister wants to be signed About the only civil war that was in the country? So I tell Bibi to stop and think. Neither Bibi nor Smotrich want to be signed to the crushing of the economy, the crushing of high-tech or a civil war."
The high-tech protest in Tel Aviv (Photo: Reuven Castro)
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Tzur-Shelo, who also sits on the executive committee of the Israel Democracy Institute, believes that if the government stops with the legal reform, it has a "historic opportunity" to create an infrastructure for a constitution with broad consensus.
"You have to think about how the founders of the state were able to agree on the declaration of independence, the nature of the state, and establish it, as a fundamental law, to take the rights of the individual that were never enshrined as a fundamental law. We are in a situation where the state is not in a bad state, both economically and security-wise, so the first thing is to preserve these institutions, and then changes can be made in the system, and yes, also in the judicial institutions," she says.
"This is a historic opportunity that Bibi has, and if I could sit down with him and tell him that, I would tell him that you have an opportunity to make a move that no one has been able to make before you, which is actually also to stabilize and ensure peace in the country here, internally, for many, many years."
Have you spoken to your ex-prime minister and ex-partner Bennett about the protest?
Do you get backup from him?
"I am not looking for backing for any move because the moves here are not political, this protest that has arisen is a social and business protest that crosses political boundaries. In my family there are ultra-Orthodox religious, right-wing, left-wing, national religious, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, everyone and everything is ultra-Orthodox and they have a fear of the disintegration of the social fabric and the tension that is increasing in society, this Not a political protest, it's a social protest - the biggest ever."
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