Single mother's trek inspires Israeli protesters...

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One day she was an ordinary mother trying to bring up her two youngest children on a meagre wage and state benefits. The next Vicki Knafo was a national icon for Israel's poor, being courted by journalists and Ministers.
The transformation came when the 43-year-old divorced mother of three decided to walk 120 miles to Jerusalem from her home in the Negev desert to camp outside the Finance Ministry in protest at swingeing benefit cuts. Within days, men and women from all over Israel were trekking miles in her footsteps to join the protest camp in the heart of the government district.

Their action has been prompted by budget cuts to income supplements brought in by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Finance Minister and former Prime Minister. Netanyahu reduced government spending as a condition of receiving grants and loan guarantees from the US government and the axe has largely fallen on Israel's poor, around a quarter of the population.

Israel spends billions of pounds keeping a large conscript and reservist army to police Palestinian areas and deter enemies in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere. It also invests heavily in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and on security measures, such as the wall planned to encircle the West Bank.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,1011486,00.html