On the morning of Independence Day, the day before the big demonstration of legal reform supporters, Barla Crombie woke up with a severe headache. Two painkillers didn’t help either.
The strategic advisor and right-wing activist who was the mastermind of the demonstration in Jerusalem, was concerned about the logistics. From the re-broadcast of the images seen in Miron over the years, or the rise to five last year – the collapse of the transportation system, and thousands of people looking for a way to return home at the end of the event, without success. “I was hysterical that this would happen. People don’t understand how much preparation there is behind such a demonstration. With the police, with the bus companies, where do you park such a large number of vehicles, how do you make a distribution terminal, where do you place portable toilets, where are loudspeakers. In the end, producer Yehuda Shorush did an amazing job. The day after the demonstration, I was told by the police that the fact that at 11:30 p.m., an hour or so after the end of the demonstration, the roads were already opened – this is an impressive achievement.”
And beyond the logistics, were you worried that you might not meet the numerical expectations?
“Unfortunately, there was such concern at the beginning. We were of little faith. That’s why we placed the stage downstairs near the Knesset, so that if only 150,000 people came, at least we would fill Kaplan. In the end, people were standing hundreds of meters away from the stage, most of them did not see it at all. Hundreds of thousands Separate them from the white. Old foxes of the right-wing protest organization told me that they don’t remember a right-wing demonstration with such a percentage of demonstrators who don’t wear a kippah, and that’s gratifying.”
When asked about the figure of 600,000 people, which was quoted the day after the event, he replies that the debate about the numbers is pointless. “For the simple reason that even those who try to make it smaller admit that hundreds of thousands must have been there. This was certainly the largest demonstration in Israel’s history. I know, I don’t believe it, I know – that we exceeded half a million. By how much? I don’t know. I think 600 thousand is not a number Absurd. The trains were increased significantly and did not cope with the load. The bus lines were greatly increased and did not cope with the load. We were in contact with the Ministry of Transportation and received data.”
When you gave the name “The Million Demonstration” in advance, was there a real expectation that it would be the number?
“There was an expectation, I’m not saying that it wasn’t. She relied on the fact that maybe the ultra-Orthodox would join. If the ultra-Orthodox would join and bring another 400,000 people, we would be in the million. Also, we didn’t invent this tactic. In 2011, there was the ‘million demonstration’ by Daphne Leaf . I remember the headline on one of the main news sites, ‘350 thousand people in the million demonstration,’ and there were maybe 200 thousand there. It’s to name, to give a title. And I think it also made a lot of people leave the house because they wanted to be part of this thing, of this big number . So professionally it proved to be true. We aimed to reach a million participants. We didn’t reach that amount, but we brought an incredible historical achievement. A demonstration like no other.”
The absence of the ultra-Orthodox was also expressed in an aggressive editorial in the Lithuanian newspaper Yad Naman, under the title “What to serve in the cemetery”. Crombie says he was mostly surprised by the shallowness of the discourse. “If you want to call us a cemetery, consider that you are hurting your public. After all, tens of thousands did come. We did not expect to bring people from the Gur and Belez Hasids, but we did expect the young people who are more nationalistic. They sent me videos of young Haredim standing in a demonstration with Israeli flags and singing HaTikva They will mobilize in the end. And if not them, then their sons. There is a process of Israelization here.”
“We hold two hats. The government has a full mandate from us to bring about the reform, and also a full mandate for negotiations. We don’t want you to do things recklessly. But yes, we have our hand on the pulse to make sure that the promise of the elections is realized”
Will such a connection in a mass rally lead to recruitment?
“Not one event, but one and another and another. It’s important to me that they be a part of us.”
And what do you say about the lack of stability of Shas?
“Very disappointing. In general, in the end, 90 percent of the story of the leftist demonstrations is the fear of the ultra-Orthodox. I think the ultra-Orthodox must understand that we are the ones paying the price for them, and not the other way around. The majority of the coalition is in favor of full conscription. Smotrich and religious Zionism are not in favor of an exemption Full of military service for the ultra-Orthodox, and their voters certainly aren’t. We pay a price for the alliance with them, and it’s disappointing that they let us fight alone.”
while movinig
Crombie’s legal reform support activity began with one sign he tried to hang in January, in front of the Azrieli Towers. He then opened a group on Paybox and collected tens of thousands of shekels through it. This continued to nationwide ads and explanatory pamphlets attached to newspapers. “After that I rolled into this event. I did not intend now to lead a struggle and be at the head of an initiative. It was set up on the fly, because we realized that no one else would organize this event. Not even right-wing associations that spoke for years against legal activism.” He does not receive payment for the activity from anyone. “Bite into the savings”, according to him.
The idea for last week’s huge rally began to unfold after the previous demonstration of support for the reform in Jerusalem, the one that came after Netanyahu’s announcement of the suspension. Crombie talked about this with Avichai Bowaron, a long-time right-wing activist and a fresh MK from the Likud, who entered the Knesset following the Norwegian law. “He got involved and lifted me up when I was in a moment of despair. After the previous demonstration, someone threw out the date of the day after Independence Day. To continue the celebrations with an event that will bring us to the true independence we long for. There was an amazing team here that picked everything up. Avichai and I mainly helped with money and creatively.”
Where does the money come from?
“In a mass fundraiser dedicated to this demonstration, we raised a million and a half shekels. The If You Want movement were full partners in the move, and raised about half a million shekels.” Apart from that, two of the coalition parties also helped with financing – the Likud with about 470 thousand shekels, and the religious Zionism with 150 thousand. “There were several other right-wing associations that helped us, and in the end there were many more donations that did not go through us. Dozens of buses arrived thanks to people who simply opened Paybox groups and financed them. Another two million shekels were raised this way. We did not have an organized website like in the left-wing demonstrations, with the whole list The funder,” he stings.
When asked if there was an expectation that Prime Minister Netanyahu would come, Crombie says that at some point yes, although on the day of the event it was already known that he would not. “Bringing the Prime Minister to such an event is to make the public miserable. This means that the stage needs to be kept away from the crowd, a check with magnetometers should be held for all the people who enter the complex. How do you even do this to hundreds of thousands? So the truth is that there was a bit of a sigh of relief. But he was with us in spirit “.
From interviews he gives to international media it is implied that he is in favor of stopping the reform.
“I’m not a spokesperson for the Prime Minister, but I say for sure that he really wants the reform, and that this demonstration really strengthened him. I think that this demonstration was important for the entire coalition. It strengthened it.”
Does he have a majority in Likud today to pass the legal changes?
“I think after the demonstration yes.”
tired of “with love we will win”
Cromby (36) lives in Jerusalem, married to Liva, a school principal in the Kochav Ya’akov settlement, and the father of six. He grew up in a family of seven siblings, to parents who repented. His father, an expert in behavioral addictions, is the director of institutions of the charitable organization Kollel Chabad. Crombie testifies to himself that even when he was registered in a Chabad “small yeshiva”, he spent a large part of his time in Yosh outposts. Later he founded a Chabad house in southern India, and after his marriage he founded the “Shemia” organization, an alternative Chabad house that was intended for religious Zionist singles and operated in Nachalot. In 2018 he managed the election campaign of the Jewish Home Party in the local elections in Jerusalem, and in the elections for the 23rd Knesset he managed the campaign of the Jewish Home Party Otzma Yehudit In recent years, he became a regular guest on television panels, broadcast on Radio Gali Israel, and managed a series of crowdfunding campaigns.
Like many right-wing people, Crombie’s biographies record several demonstrations of support for Netanyahu, as well as several against him. “In 1996, I was a ten-year-old boy, we lived in Safed at the time. My brother and I rode our bikes on election day to distribute flyers given to us by the Likud headquarters. At the end of the election, we went to bed with great disappointment that Peres was elected, and I remember how my mother woke us up in the morning and excitedly said that Bibi had won My affair with Netanyahu began there. Then after the elections, I remember going with my father to demonstrations against Netanyahu. He came to Safed for the event and there were hundreds of people standing there with whistles, shouting at him not to go to the discussions with Arafat at Way Plantation. When he was Minister of Finance in the Sharon government I demonstrated quite a bit against him in Jerusalem.”
But according to him, “The Netanyahu of 2015 is a different Netanyahu. A Netanyahu who completely promotes a right-wing policy, and approves units in the Yash out of a strategic concept, a Netanyahu who buried the Palestinian story, and a Netanyahu who completely leads the legal reform. Of course, it should be done wisely. It was not right to immediately follow five rules. You have four years, so take it slowly. First you will change the committee for appointing judges, after that you will enter people into the system. The recovery paragraph can wait. Right of standing, okay. Reasonableness – what can we say, it is true that it should be canceled but we can wait a little. And beyond that, I think no one anticipated the strength of the resistance and the strength of the money invested in the leftist demonstrations.”
The day after the demonstration, severe media criticism was heard following photos that allegedly showed the protesters stepping on a sign bearing the portrait of the President of the Supreme Court, Judge Esther Hayut. “It’s just a blood plot,” says Crombie. “It didn’t happen. ‘Carrying a sign’ is a gimmick of demonstrations that the left does in Kaplan, huge signs 50-60 meters in size that are raised above the crowds and photographed from above with a drone. We are so immature, we didn’t know that it should be illuminated with projectors from below, otherwise You can’t see anything. The left has a network of projectors underneath, they know how to stage performances. With us they saw a black spot.
“It wasn’t effective, so they took the sign down. When we organized to pick it up and also at one point when they took it down, boys walked over it because it was crowded and it took up a lot of space. Not in defiance, not to ‘make you angry’, not to be photographed. Maybe it should have been folded Beautiful, beautiful and giving a kiss is like reading a holy book,” he says sarcastically. “The claims of a deliberate stepping on the sign are a fake, and the media knowingly echoed this lie. This is a blood plot on the level of a picture of Rabin in SS uniform. For thirty years, the right has been trying to explain that it was impossible to see those four pictures printed on printer pages from the stage.”
This week, wearing a traditional Moroccan garment and a headscarf, Crombie called on Twitter to join a protest in front of the home of former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, who said in an interview that over the years he and his friends “looked for and did not find” suitable judges of Moroccan origin. In a conversation that takes place before this planned demonstration, Crombie says that “this is an event in which we are partners along with other organizations. Not every interesting event is a violent event. We are frightened by some performance with an interesting and somewhat original gimmick because oh oh oh oh. That’s not how you build a campaign.”
Your photo also provoked criticism from within the camp, it was claimed that it was an insult to the Moroccan community.
“Look at how amazing it is. We spent hundreds of thousands of shekels on a campaign – crickets. And here, suddenly, with a gimmick, everyone is talking about it and saying with a serious expression, ‘Obviously, we need Mizrahi judges, but not like this.’ who need a change in the Supreme Court.”
What are the benefits of the demonstrations in front of Barak’s house?
“Ultimately, the other side must start paying a price. Aharon Barak and Ehud Barak are the masterminds, they drive this anarchism. Aharon Barak said in an interview that he is ready to face a firing squad to stop the reform. I recall that when Rabbi Druckman signed a letter that should everything’ so that the previous government would not stand up, they immediately started with the shock of ‘what does everything mean’ and that this is ‘incitement’. In contrast, Barak is really telling his fans, not to mention his followers, to do everything, and he means everything. Did you ask for demonstrations? Let’s see if you Such a hero. And it will continue because we are tired of looking pretty and saying with love we will win. Do you know how many extreme events we neutralized on Thursday?”
How do you neutralize organizations like La Familia?
“There were many talks with all kinds of groups. A lot of time was invested in this, and also that there would be a respectable demonstration. There was a march of hundreds of professors and doctors, there was a Nobel Prize winner who spoke on stage. A march of 500 reservists, officers and soldiers, including the one who was tried.”
The next step: legal deterrence
According to Crombie, “the march in the street has only just begun”, along with significant information that they intend to carry out. “People came back from this demonstration with their feet upright, with the understanding that they are not ‘the only crazy person’ who supports the reform. Someone told me, ‘I also saw the one from the gym and the one with the child in kindergarten on the train, I didn’t think they supported it.’ I believe that the more public legitimacy there is, People who openly say that they support, there will be more MKs from the other side who support the changes that dare to come, like Matan Kahana for example.”
Do you really think he will come?
“I think it is possible to reach a compromise that everyone can live with. If it was free of position, they would come.”
Another planned move is creating a deterrent through legal means. “To deter those who call for refusal, for boycotts, for shutting down the economy, for violence. In the panel with Yair Golan, I asked him to condemn the vandalism of the signs I put up, and he replied that ‘the people have spoken.’ Claims by patients who should have received treatment against the professors and hospitals that shut down. Claims by shareholders against Harel Wiesel, the owner of Fox.” He admits that the call from the stage at the demonstration to boycott Fox chain stores made him move uneasily, “but there is a strategic consideration here. His forum disabled the state and subdued the Knesset.”
And the demonstrations will continue. “There will be small events and there will be big ones. We are already working on the next mass event. We wear two hats, which is tricky, but they are not contradictory. In my speech at the demonstration, I said that the government has a full mandate from us for reform, and also a full mandate for negotiations. We don’t want you to do things recklessly. We give A mandate for broad agreement, to try to reach a moderate alliance. Perhaps with Benny Gantz and Hili Trooper, although unfortunately for now they are not a partner. But yes, we have our hands on the pulse to make sure that the election promise is realized. We were defeated in the first battle. We got a second chance to do it Consider, with public support and with publicity. I hope we don’t lose the opportunity.”
