A march in Jerusalem in February.
Photographer: Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Hedge Funders Drive Protests in Battle Over Israeli High Court
Nearly three months of rallies challenging government plans to weaken the judiciary are sapping investor confidence and deepening divides.
Erez Shachar manages one of Israel’s top investment funds, with $1.1 billion in assets. Normally he can get senior officials on the phone with little effort. Yet the 59-year-old has spent the last 10 Saturday nights marching through Tel Aviv with tens of thousands of other protesters waving an Israeli flag, shouting “Shame!” and “De-mo-cra-cy!” and singing along to the tune We have no other country.
Like those around him, he is trying to make his voice heard in a new way. Accompanied by his wife, several of his children and friends, Shachar, co-founder of Qumra Capital, views a government plan to slash the power of the judiciary as an assault on the country’s liberal democracy. It is a fight that is tearing Israel apart, pitting leaders from business to the military to the tech sector against the right-wing government.