Hundreds of people remained in nearly 40 tents at Tel Aviv's Habima Square on Saturday to protest skyrocketing housing prices. Organizers of the protest, now entering its third day, said Israel's government has forsaken the people. Thousands of residents visited the peaceful rally site Friday night, showing their support and cheering on the protesters, activists said.
Yesterday night some 100 demonstrators began marching along the streets of Tel Aviv on their way to join the tent protest at Habima Square. This rally was the start of the "Rage Week" in Israel with the participation of Left young activists from Tel-Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. The "Rage Week" motivations are "the power of the rich, the rising prices of housing and food and the occupation politics of the government".
Charges that the demonstrations were associated with Israel's leftist camp surfaced after Knesset Member Miri Regev (Likud) was greeted with hostile chants and ended up fleeing the site Friday. "They are a bunch of ultra-left activists" said MK Regev today to Israeli radio. Both Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Deputy Mayor Assaf Zamir were heckled and left before they could finish their speeches, while Likud MK Miri Regev was kicked off the premises for being part of the government coalition.
"The government has abandoned the people and the youth in this country. The protest is not sectarian but we do have a problem with anyone who is a part of this government, which has forsaken the people," he said one of the protest organizers, Roey Neumann.
Part of the anger is aimed at Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai: "He is part of this government...He can't be coy about it." The protest organizer also addressed the hardships young Israelis face these days. "It's a basic fact – young people complete their army service, pay taxes, give everything to the State – but see no silver lining, no future," he said. "It's the basic responsibility of the government, of the prime minster himself, to citizens. We cannot go on like this."
Now, the protests and have spread to other Israeli cities, such as Be’er Sheva and Kiryat Shmona and the National Student Union announced Sunday they would be launching protests in other cities throughout the country during the upcoming week.
Kfar Saba resident Shahar Abud, head of Beit Berl College’s student union, said on Friday that he and other protesters would stay at the Rothschild tent city as long as possible, with the eventual goal of joining other groups of tent city protesters from across the country and holding a similar protest in Jerusalem outside the Knesset. Abud said the solution to the housing crisis is for “the government to get involved in the market in order to increase the number of apartments. The situation can’t continue wherein the number of families [in Israel] is higher than the number of available apartments.”
He said that the issue is of particular importance to him because “people are always talking about the ‘Tel Aviv bubble,’ but the bubble is all over the country. The only places that are left for young people to live are in poorer neighborhoods or farther-away places. The Student Union's protest moves will be launched on at 6 pm Sunday at the Rupin College in the Sharon region, and at 8 pm at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba. The students are expected to set up protest tents for several hours.
On Tuesday students from the Tel Hai College will set up a protest tent in Kiryat Shmona, and on Wednesday the protest will move to the Beit Berl College near Kfar Saba. Demonstrations may also be held in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Related:
http://maki.org.il/en/society/125-news/11168-indignados-made-in-israel-thousands-rally-in-protest-against-housing-prices
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