By Steve Ornstein It all started with the dairy cartel in Israel raising the price of cottage cheese that caught the attention of the middle class and a mini revolt was under way. A boycott of the cheese caught the attention of the media and it sparked a public expression of the middle class discontent for high taxation with out any serious benefits except for the difficulty of making ends meet.
What started as a small protest against the high rental prices in Tel Aviv has now reached every corner of the country. Tent cities have spread from the heart of Tel Aviv on Rothchild Blvd. through out the entire nation. First it was the students protesting the difficulty of living in Tel Aviv because of the high rent and now it includes the suffering of the old and single parent households that can never imagine owning any property let alone afford the rent.
Now the doctors and medical professionals are on strike through out the country. The average wage for a doctor working in public institutions is approximately $ 6.00 an hour or 20.7 shekels. A house cleaner makes more money per hour. This deterioration and abuse by the government agencies has been going on long before this government but now it has reached a point of no return. Both the housing protests and medical professionals are joining forces and are taking their fight to the Knesset.
This government has been very insensitive to the plight of the middle class let alone the poor in all sectors. This sector pays the most in taxes and receives little in return. It has reached a boiling point that needs to be addressed immediately.
To make matters worse for the Prime Minister and his government, middle class housewives began marching with their strollers through out Israel protesting the high cost living and the cost of raising a child. These protests are expanding rapidly and are putting tremendous pressure on the government to address these neglected issues.
Of course we see the politicians of all stripes expressing support and solidarity in some way with the demonstrators. However, this has now become what I have coined the “Israeli Summer”. You can feel the electricity in the air and the support for all of the protestors by the once silent majority that no longer appears to be willing to put up with this impossible situation. This is the perfect storm that has been brewing for quite a while now and it appears to be coming together in a massive middle class uproar with the echoing of the line “We are mad as hell and We are not going to take it any more”. It appears that this is not going to go away. The government is failing and whether it will free fall only time will tell.
At a protest outside the Knesset on Sunday, Itay Gottler, who heads the student union at the Hebrew University, spoke of a popular movement.
“This is a struggle that involves secular people, the ultra-Orthodox, religious, Arabs, young people and students,” he said. “This is the struggle of the people.”
Click on the picture below for the photos of tent city Tel Aviv
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| Tent City Rothchild Blvd. Tel Aviv |
