Something is happening in Israel

Two weeks ago I saw in the news a small interview with a young woman saying that she needed to leave her apartment, she was fed up with the prices of the housing and she is putting a tent in Rothschild Boulevard. She also invited people to join her.

In Hebrew we say: “Day Azui”, meaning “she is hallucinating”. That was what I though.

Last Saturday I participated in a march of 150 thousand people from the same Rothschild Boulevard (now renamed to “If I were Rothschild” Boulevard) and everybody around me was shouting “Revolution” and “The people wants social justice”. Today I am going to participate in a “Hyde Park” of people calling for general strike. There are tents now all over Israel, in every city. In Tel Aviv there are tents in Jaffa, in Nordau Street – the whole Rothschild is full of tents.


Stolen from Ido Amado Facebook album


The events are numerous and diverse: there is a big strike of the doctors, yesterday there was strikes in all the hospitals, protest against the price of the petrol, the prams parades (parents and children in protest against the cost of living). Today most of the municipalities will be on strike in solidarity with the “tent movement” and Rothschild was transformed in a living Woodstock.

Out of 150000 people most were middle class but there were a lot of people from the poor neighbourhoods. There were some Arabs and here and there we could see a religious guy. But this is changing. Arabs are starting to participate more and more and in Jerusalem there are a lot of religious people.

What happened in two weeks? Nobody really knows. It is more than that: when I went to the manifestation and saw the people shouting I understood that till then I had no idea of the nature of this thing that is happening. In the news we can see reporters and commentators talking about the events and you can understand which ones participate on it and which did not. Those who did not are completely out of the pictures. They talk, for example, about the demands. They don’t understand the 150000 are not talking about demands – they are talking about change.

The government are completely out of answers. In fact, they are desperate. Last week, Bibi declared on a press conference a lot of reforms that the tent movement explained they don’t believe on them – they dismissed it as “more promises”. Bibi went on in another occasion and declared a committee of ministers to talk to the tent movement. They answered they talk only to him and with cameras. “Total disclosure, they explained – we do not represent anybody, we represent only ourselves and if he wants to talk to them it must be transparent to all”. In an interview Bibi said he is going attack the tycoons that control the businesses, in another he told they are entrepreneurs, they promote the progress of the country. Now Bibi send his people to tell the press he is preparing reforms to cut taxes.

Why all this happened now? Difficult to say. Two weeks ago, people would burn the same red flags you see now all over the tents, they never revolted, and they were always very conformable and very passive. Suddenly this exploded. Part is influence of Kikar Tahrir, part the social media seems to liberate a new kind of communication. The truth? I have no idea.

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