Hundreds of Thousands of Protestors Take to the Streets in Israel -- Are the Winds of Social Change Blowing?

The popular protests now engulfing Israel, originally spurred by a housing crisis, have quickly morphed into an amalgamation of economic and social demands, leaving many in Israel’s progressive left to wonder exactly how broad these protests now threatening to paralyze Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s leadership will become.

Make no mistake; these protests, begun in Tel Aviv by Israel’s young, left-leaning middle class, are awakening the voices of many sectors that have long-been dormant. There is a social reordering underfoot — the 150,000 Israelis who took to the streets in 11 different cities across the country on Saturday, directing their anger squarely at Netanyahu, are a testament to this. (To understand the scope of these protests, approximately two percent of Israel’s population swarmed the country’s streets and public squares, which in the United States would be around 5.5 million.)

While a lack of affordable housing is the rallying cry around which protesters throughout the country began mobilizing, a deeper discontent has been fomenting. Netanyahu’s championing of anti-democratic laws aimed at squelching criticism of the State coupled with continuing economic policies that have widened gaps between the rich and the poor have angered citizens — so much so that they are now symbolically rejecting both by aiming their protests squarely at their leader.

But many in Israel’s left see a disconnect in what’s occurring; how can Israelis protest housing prices without mentioning the settlements? How can Israel’s young progressives demand social justice without mentioning the occupation?

For now, the protest leaders’ complaints are mostly centered on skyrocketing housing costs due, in part, to a shortage of available land — a shortage caused by the government’s monopoly over land holdings, its reticence to release enough of it for construction, and the endless bureaucracy that delays permit acquisition for approved areas.

In a televised press conference recently, Netanyahu attempted to appease the protesters by offering proposals aimed at enticing the young rather than at systemic reforms — proposals that Daphni Leef, the 26-year-old activist who started the protest movement now sweeping Israel, immediately rejected:

“Netanyahu said he will give plots of land out for free, and who will get them? Those people in Israel in need? No, those who will get them are the contractors, and the rest of his wealthy friends who can build on land free of charge…

“What Mr. Netanyahu proposed was nothing less than fraud…Our answer to his offer is ‘No.’ We here in Tel Aviv may be young, but we weren’t born yesterday.”

The protests are not only spreading geographically; their momentum has brought other groups to the streets, including small pockets of the aggrieved — striking doctors, dairy farmers and struggling working parents — who have also begun marching. More significantly, the head of the Histadrut, Israel’s powerful organization of trade unions, has joined the housing protests, putting the full force of Israeli labor behind them and general strikes taking place.

With a recent Ha’aretz poll showing 87 percent of Israelis siding with the protesters, and with Netanyahu’s approval rating quickly plummeting from 51 to 32 percent, the progressive left in Israel appears to be undergoing a sudden rebirth. The left seems emboldened by Netanyahu’s vulnerability and enraged not only by Israel’s growing economic disparities brought on by Netanyahu’s privatization push, but by the damage legislators in his party have done to Israel’s democracy.