The massive protest against high housing costs spread to additional cities

20 July 2011, Communist Party of Israel המפלגה הקומוניסטית הישראלית http://maki.org.il (Israel)

The massive protest against high housing costs spread yesterday (Tuesday) to additional cities, with local residents coming out in support of the mostly young protesters. Hadash members and Communist Party of Israel activist take part in the protests all over the country.

("A-Tahrir at Tel-Aviv, Capitalism Game Over!". The protest tent city in Tel-Aviv, Photo: Al-Ittihad"))

The first protest in the Arab sector appeared yesterday, in Tamra in Western Galilee. Muhammed Abu-Alhija, 25, a bachelor and informal educator, put up a tent at the entrance to the town of Tamra. "We young Arabs also have to make our voice heard," he said. "I hope my cry will bring more and more young couples to support the struggle," he said.

According to a survey by the databank established by the NGO Galilee Society, 55.2 percent of Arab families in Israel that will need housing in the coming decade, will not be able to afford a place to live.

Tents are also expected to go up today at Bet Berl College near Kfar Sava, , where students are fighting the rising cost of dorm rental. The protesters spent the night in 10 tents near the Kfar Sava municipality. "People in their 50s, 60s and 70s are taking part in the protest," said Merav Raymond, 24, who organized the tent city protest in Kfar Sava.

Tents also went up yesterday in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, About 100 students from Tel Hai Academic College set up some 25 tents in the city's IDF Square, and said they would stay for as long as it took to advance the fight for affordable housing. A number of the town's long-time residents joined the students. Tel-Hai College Student Union chairman Aviad Rosenfeld said the monthly salary a student earned in Kiryat Shmona was about what a month's rent cost. "On the one hand they tell you it's expensive in Tel Aviv, come study in the outlying areas, but when you get here you find out there's no public transportation, housing is expensive and it's hard to find a job," he said. Kiryat Shmona Mayor Nissim Malka remarks to protesters at the site were greeted with applause. "It's important to me for students to live in Kiryat Shmona," Malka said. He pledged to move ahead housing solutions for young people.

In Jerusalem, there was barely room yesterday afternoon for the 10 tents that were taking up the little patch of grass near the Old City wall opposite IDF Square. Still, a big sign called on passersby to "bring a tent and join."

"This is only the beginning," the chairman of the Hebrew University Student Union, Itai Gutler, said. "Rental prices are almost as high in Jerusalem as in Tel Aviv, which is absurd, because there's nowhere near the quality of life in Jerusalem," he said.

A Hadash activist, Adam Y. Amorai, one of the protest's organizers in Jerusalem said: "There is a mixture of people and movements who are partners to the struggle." Amorai said the government and big contractors should stop trying to maximize its profits on state lands and offer lower-cost housing to young people. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acceded to a demand yesterday by MK Hanna Swaid (Hadash ) to halve the size requirement regarding a minimal planned number of dwellings in the new bill to streamline housing construction, from 200 to 100. Netanyahu also agreed to change the requirement that at least 80 percent of the new dwellings had to be built on state-owned land. Under the amendment, construction can be on privately-owned land. The original requirements had, in practice, eliminated Arab towns from eligibility.

Netanyahu’s own solution for solving the crisis, called the National Housing Bill, is expected to pass its final readings in the Knesset ahead of the recess. The bill passed a joint session of the Knesset Economics and Interior committees Tuesday. MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) attacked the government for not including in the bill more guarantees that affordable apartments would be built. He said the bill allowed contractors to construct luxury apartments instead of affordable housing.

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