Carlo Strenger: Israel's secular middle class fight back

[LeftishBrit]

The international press has paid remarkably little attention to Israel's civil uprising in the last weeks – probably because, ostensibly, it is about a purely internal matter: the exorbitantly high cost of housing in Israel. Inside Israel, this uprising is filling the pages of all newspapers and websites.

The uprising started in Tel Aviv. Daphni Leef, a 25-year-old video editor, was sick and tired of the high rents she could no longer afford to pay. On Facebook she called upon other youngsters to join her on Tel Aviv Rothschild Boulevard to set up tents and protest. To her surprise, thousands, first in Tel Aviv, then across the country, joined her with a number of related causes: mothers demanding affordable childcare, doctors seeking reasonable pay and human hours. The demonstrations last Saturday brought more than 150,000 people on to the streets demanding social justice – and another Facebook revolution was started in the Middle East.

In the beginning, Likud members of the Knesset dismissed the uprising as a "far-left conspiracy", but soon the Netanyahu government, generally quite impervious to the public's mood, became nervous. Binyamin Netanyahu, who tends to keep himself out of social issues, quickly began to make offers to the demonstrators, which, so far, they haven't accepted.

The demonstrators have kept the protests apolitical, and a week ago, support for their demands commanded the support of 87% of the respondents to a Haaretz poll – an unheard of degree of unity in Israel's divided citizenry.

(And much more at link)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/02/israel-middle-class-uprising

[MADem]

1. So, The Rent Is Too Damn High Party has taken hold in Israel!!! Who knew???

It's like the sixties all around the world....riots in London, the middle class challenging the government in Israel....we're living in interesting times. Bibi must be shitting his pants--he can't dismiss this, even though he's trying like hell. Those middle class people he's dissing are the ones paying all the bills!