March of the unicorns: Israel’s tech sector rebels against Netanyahu ‘power grab’

theguardian.com:

A bout 20 years ago, the skyline of Tel Aviv began to change. The city’s collection of elegant white Bauhaus buildings has been joined by tower after tower, each one a salute to Israel’s rapid transformation into one of the world’s most important advanced technology centres.

It is no accident that the rise of the “startup nation” has dovetailed with the career of its longest serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi, as he is widely known, is a firm believer in the free market and has championed Israel’s vaunted hi-tech sector as his own personal achievement. At 15.3% of GDP, it is now Israel’s main engine of economic growth, employing 10% of the country’s salaried workforce, and generating about a quarter of income taxes.

Which perhaps makes it all the more surprising that the tech sector is now rebelling against the prime minister over government proposals to neuter the Israeli judiciary. Spooked by predictions of the end of democracy and the rule of law, Israel’s entrepreneurial class, previously seemingly immune to the political weather, has joined the hundreds of thousands of people striking and marching as part of the country’s biggest ever protest movement.

There are increasing signs the famously resilient sector is under pressure. A recent report by the Israeli business publication Calcalist suggested that 85bn shekels (£20bn) in capital has been taken out of Israel in the two months since the new government was sworn in and the shekel was the world’s third worst-performing currency in February, falling to a three-year low against the dollar. Economists globally have predicted a possible downgrade of Israel’s credit rating – unwelcome news for the hi-tech sector, which by some estimates is 90% funded by