Israel tents protests social change July 11
A year ago, in July 2011, Israel’s middle class raised a collective fist and raged against the near-impossible plight of making a decent living. Here are three scenarios what happened after. They signal what could happen if no political connection is made.
At the time it felt like the winds of change ushered in hope… that yes, maybe finally, a new era would propel tax drops, public housing, anti-cartel laws, decent wages….
Scenario 1:
But then, with the conclusion of Ramadan, the UN vote and the first thud of rockets from Gaza edging to the center, the movement gave way to the inalienable fight for survival. Eventually the rockets died. The threat of UN sanctions was narrowly avoided and the no solution-solution won again…for now.
It’s August 2012, and the scent of elections is in the air… Last year’s proposals and promises were buried in cyber file morgues.
Now it was the turn of the political hounds. They were back camping out in coffee shops, on the very side walks of last year’s tent cities, carving deals for the morning after. A year after, Bibi’s back-flips championed. Once again Bibi and his cronies were cow towing to old allies – the ultra religious, the West bank settlers, the tycoons. And, aside from menial wage raises, an influx of food imports and measly tax deductions, nothing changed. Nothing!
Scenario 2:
Finally you could sense it. By the end of the summer of 2012, the polarized left and right rivalry gave way to the politics of economics. Last year’s social protests seeds planted a field of new political movements. At the realm – The populist Yair Lapid.
Yair cut though Bibi’s rhetoric and challenged his duplicitous charisma. By now the middle class movement was seething. In a bid to budget for better housing, better wages and more equal social conditions, they protested. But this time they focused their protests against hand-outs to the ultra-religious, inflated defense budgets and cheap buildings for settlers.
The inner as well as the outer demographic threats captured center stage.
Failing to negotiate a path to a Palestinian state, failing to orchestrate real socio-economic changes, failing to elude international isolation and boycotts, the Likud lost a third of their seats.
The country was paralyzed and deadlocked in a political debacle. No party had the power to carve a sizable coalition. The threat of elections were looming in the air once again.
A fragile but forthcoming deal was brokered between the three leading factions – the Likud, the extreme right led by Liberman and Lapid’s party. Oddly enough not one religious party partnered this coalition for the first time in Israel’s political history.
Scenario 3:
By the end of the summer of 2012, Israel was exhausted from almost a year of intense violence. Come September 2011, thousands of Palestinians responded to the Rothschild’s tent town with their own tent cities.
Shame on you, they cried. As opposed to you, we are not protesting about food cuts, lower rents or petrol prices… We are protesting our lifelong eviction. Tent cities were set up in East Jerusalem and Hebron.
Groups of extremist right wings physically protested opposite their tents daily. On the eve of the UN vote riots broke out and spilled into the streets of Ramallah, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The day after, protests resumed in Um El Pachem and Jaffa.
The threat of international boycotts began to impact the economy.
The political crisis gave birth to a new political leadership from inside the Likud. The new government began to make concessions to recognize a Palestinian state.
