Israel protests: demands for social justice

This is a strange depiction of the housing crisis tent protests from Taiwan...

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The "tent protests" in Tel Aviv led to a nation-wide set of protests against the rising cost of housing. That spread to a general protest against the rising cost of living, with specific targets such as the cottage cheese protest.

"We come with complaints against the systems and authorities for every time the parnassa of the avreichim and families with a lot of children is affected negatively.
We blame the whole world for harassing us and for insensitivity. But when we are talking about our own people, we "fill our mouths with water" and accept it as a decree that you cannot talk against.
Does anybody have an explanation why meat or chicken that is mehadrin, why it's prices are 3 or even 4 times the price of regular kosher chicken? Even if you add the cost of the most mehudar kashrus at the best it should add just 20% to the price and not more.
Maybe the mehadrin cows are being given to drink only pure mehadrin olive oil or maybe the chickens are hatching from golden eggs?
Why by the cottage cheese thousands go out the streets, ban the product, until their complaint is heard. But when it gets to a decree of one of ours nobody opens their mouths and cries out?"

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the golden calf at the #J14 tent protests (March of the Million) in Tel Aviv last night. The Golden Calf seemingly represents Netanyahu's worshiping of the tycoons and wealth

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  -- Haaretz

uh, shouldn't they be expecting a million people at the march of the million? or else change the name of the march to "the march of the hundreds of thousands"...

HaDag HaNachash is an Israeli rock band with a unique style and a flair for interesting and unique content in the lyrics of their songs. This latest song of HaDag Hanachash, "I Believe", is dealing with the tent protests and social justice..




HaDag HaNachash has a number of hits in Israel, including "The Sticker Song" in which they made a song out of the various bumper sticker slogans popular around Israel...

Rabbi Dov Lipman posted the following update regarding the Bet Shemesh tent protests over the housing crisis. he graciously gave me permission to post it here:

1) The unity march on Motzei Shabbat was a huge success. While many (including myself) may not agree with some of the messages that were conveyed regarding the broader national tent protest, the fact that over
1,000 residents from all populations (and most importantly Old Bet Shemesh) joined together to demand equality was a very important statement and the Mayor has already made contact with the youth organizers about meeting to discuss their demands.




2) The Likud gathering was also very productive. Minister Yuli Edelstein, MK Danny Danon, MK Ofir Akunis, MK Carmel Shama, and MK Tzipi Hotovely all spoke about their plan to raise the issue of Bet Shemesh and building for all populations in discussions with the Prime Minister. Even more
importantly, Carmel Shama heads the committee with oversight over the Housing Ministry and he plans to address the needs of the Bet Shemesh general population using that platform.




3) The Regional Board for Planning and Construction sat from 9:00a.m. to 7:00p.m. yesterday hearing more objections and moving forward with the objections process. This included hearing from the local planning board, the original designer of RBS Gimmel 2, and asking hard questions from City Councilman Moshe Montag who holds the construction portfolio. During that questioning, Mr. Montag was essentially forced into saying that the general population could purchase the inexpensive apartments in RBS Gimmel 2 and
that plans would be developed a gym, matnas, and pool in the neighborhood.


The members of the board also asked numerous objectors what changes they suggested be made to the plans and most suggested waiting until access roads were built and all infrastructure was in place before beginning construction. 


 A spokesperson for the Housing Ministry also answered questions and admitted that the program for RBS Gimmel 2 was made for one specific population - something which will help the cause if it needs to be taken to court. Now we wait for the regional board to make their decision before knowing what further steps need to be taken.
Thank you to everyone who took part in these actions and I will continue to update when new information comes my way.
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Will anything come of all this? Who knows. I don't like the anti-haredi tones (not in the message above but in general regarding the protests), and if they would stay away from that I would be more supportive. Besides for that, it looks like they are running a pretty good protest.
Getting five MKs including a minister to show up for what is considered a relatively small protest group (the smallest protest I saw reported in the papers was 1500. Bet Shemesh was estimated at a bit over 1000 and didnt get mentioned in the papers, but still got 5 MKs) is pretty impressive.

Glenn Beck On The Leftist Protests In Tel Aviv

Former PM Ehud Olmert's Friend Billionaire Daniel Abrams Admits Funding Tent Protests

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You can continue removing tents from Nordau, Lewinski, from Taibe, and from what I hear even soon from Rothschild, and thereby be remembered in the annals of Israel as small kapos, that in exchange for a miserable  salary harmed the one good thing that happened to this nation in the past 25 years, or to refuse and go home as heroes who will be able to look their children straight in the eyes without cringing from shame. The choice is yours.

  -- Regev Contes, one of the heads of the tent protests, responding to the news that the Tel Aviv Municipality was going to be removing the empty tents.

Last week it was reported that the first year guys in Yeshivas Kol Torah were upset about the dormitory being reorganized, along with some other changes in the yeshiva. They were being moved to rooms further away. In response, they took a page out of the book of the tent protests, and set up tents in the courtyard of the yeshiva in protest.

At the time, it seemed like a cute prank, albeit a bit rude. It took some gall for the boys to do that, and they are lucky they were not all tossed from the yeshiva.

They have now escalated their fight. Bechadrei is reporting that they have gotten a sense that they are being treated with less respect, as if they don't deserve to be in the yeshiva, as if they are not the caliber of boys appropriate for Kol Torah. They decided that if they are going to be treated like sug bet, second-class citizens, students, they will act like sug bet students. They set up an action park of sorts in the courtyard of the yeshiva, playing basketball and ping pong, along with other activities. The main attraction was the rappelling line they installed from the roof of the yeshiva building 30 meters high, and then they climbed down the side of the building.

The yeshiva boys of today are clearly very different from the yeshiva boys of my day... this sounds like a prank more appropriate for a different type of yeshiva...

Livni Surprised Polls Show Netanyahu Rising despite the increasing protests

we all know polls are worthless, but politicians put everything into the polls..

The tent protests create a serious dilemma.

While I would like to support the protests, as the cost of living has increased significantly and so many people simply cant make it to the end of the month even on decent salaries it just seems like a protest that is proper.

On the other hand, the protests are basically calling for government intervention in prices, be it in housing, be it in basic goods, be it in a host of other products and services that are pointed to. Once the government meddles with the prices, it is no longer a free market. If we don't operate in a free market, there goes our international economic benefits and credit ratings Who is to say that once we operate not in a free market, what we will expect the government to pay for, or intervene in, next. Eventually the government will have to raise taxes to be able to pay for all the price controls and subsidies that will be demanded.

So, while the protest is "just", on a certain level, I don't see or understand what they expect the government to do while keeping the market free. In housing and construction more land can be released, bureaucracy can be lessened to attain building permits, but in general cost of living items, there is not much that can be done.

An example of this is the recommendation of the Minister of Interior Eli Yishai. Yishai today recommended that the government pass a law that would maximize  the rent charged by owners of rental apartments to a maximum of 2% annually of the real estate value of the apartment. Why should the government put a limit on how much money I can make off an investment I put my money into? And if they do, that will kill the real estate market, as people wont bother investing in homes for rentals. That will take many homes off the rental market, again probably driving up prices of rentals.

The tent protests have an element of justice to them, I just don't see what they expect to happen. And that si without even dealing with the mixing of politics into it.

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The National Union has decided to join the protests and sent a letter to Bibi who predictably ignored it. Therefore, today we decided to join, in addition to other points, the tent protest on Rothschild St. There are 100 people who came and have already begun to set up a shul and will, with God's help, bring to the strengthening of Jews and bringing them closer to their father in heaven...
Most of the public sitting in tents is not form the Leftist community. If you would remove all the Leftists from the tents and put them on a bus, you would still have room on the bus for more passengers. There are almost no Leftists in Israel, and the people in the tents are the general public.
Even the leftists received us in a satisfying way. We met and I said to them that I agree with what they are saying, though my solutions are different than their solutions. You cannot talk about a housing crisis and insist on continuing a construction freeze in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. You cannot talk about a lack of apartments in Tel Aviv and then bring tens of thousands of infiltrators from Sudan and Ariteria. You cannot talk about education and not be educated. So our solutions are different. 
We pray to Hashem that.. we should succeed to insert into Tel Aviv, that she too is a city in Eretz Yisrael and a holy place, the holiness.

  -- National Union and Eretz Yisrael activist Baruch marzel

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the sign on the tent says "Duplex on Rothschild.. if I am going to dream, then all the way..". This was seen at the tent protest in Tel Aviv on Rothschild st.

Remember that guy I wrote about last week who was setting up a Haredi tent protest but charging 150NIS for people to join?

Turns out he does not have the [silent] rabbinic support he thought he had...

Kikar is reporting that a list of rabbonim, including the rav of the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood, which is where the Haredi tent protest was going to be located, has come out strongly against the idea, saying that the tent protest can lead to chinuch problems. The rabbonim told him that if he proceeds with the tent protest they will sue him in beis din.

The article does not say what the din torah would be about. To force him to stop? to pay for some sort of damages, such as to the childrens' chinuch, or maybe to the neighborhood reputation? I am not sure, but probably to force him to stop.

Yishai Ohana, the entrepreneur behind the idea of the Haredi tent protest, isn't going to let a little bit of rabbinic opposition stop him. He has responded saying that he is in negotiations with the rabbonim to try to work it out in a way that they will support him, but if they will not allow it, he will simply move it to a different location in Ramat Eshkol instead of Shmuel HaNavi.

So, if he ignores the rabbonim who tell him to stop, can it still be considered a Haredi tent protest or will it have become just a general tent protest?

While more and more people are joining the tent protests around the country, one person realized he can use this not just as a political tool but as an entrepreneurial tool, and make some money off it.

Kikar is reporting that someone decided to set up in Jerusalem a tent city for the haredim to join the protest. he brought a bunch of tents for people to use, and he is charging people 150 NIS each to join the protest. He says the charge is to "cover expenses"...

Obviously the only people who can be at these protests around the clock are students who are on vacation along with unemployed (though unemployment is very low), so he tells people who join his group that they should come when he alerts them that the press will be there, so that the protest will have an effect.

The entrepreneur claims to have rabbinic support, though does not supply any names. he says the rabbis support him quietly but wont come out and say so.

I am curious if people will pay him to join his tent city of if they will just go to an open tent city elsewhere, or even just plop their own tents down for no cost.

The true entrepreneur can find opportunities anywhere.

A Bibi impersonator, who is an Israeli comedian, showed up to the main "tent city" on Rothschild street in Tel Aviv, and spoke about his "solutions" to the housing crisis. It is pretty funny.

Bet Shemesh is going to be joining the "tent protest" regarding the lack of housing, and the high cost of housing.

This afternoon at 5:00 PM a "tent city" will be established at the promenade near the memorial to the soldiers on the left side on the way up towards Old Bet Shemesh.

The goal of this protest is not to topple the government or just create noise. The goal is to bring to attention of the national media and population that, as opposed to most other places in the country, there is actually massive construction planned for the hills of Bet Shemesh and this is an opportunity to provide inexpensive housing for young couples, especially for the children of Old Bet Shemesh. However, as of now, all of the construction is planned for one specific population and not the general population.

the Bet Shemesh tent protest is being organized by Moti Cohen, a city councilman who has changed direction 180 degrees and completely opposes Mayor Moshe Abutbol in every possible way, after originally being one of his strongest supporters in the elections 2.5 years ago. Along with Cohen, Shalom Lerner is also one of the organizers of the tent protest.

I spoke with Shalom Lerner and asked what it is about. Lerner told me, as it says above in text I paraphrased from their email distribution, that Bet Shemesh is lookign at massive amounts of construction, but it is being designated for only one sector. The residents of "Old Bet Shemesh" are suffering with the rest of the country with a lack of housing, affordable or not, for their children. Bet Shemesh should be building for everyone. there is so much land here, so much construction going on, that Bet Shemesh can be a [partial] solution to the crisis for everyone, and not just using it to narrowly help a single group. (these are my words explaining his position. any errors or inaccuracies in transmission are mine, though this is what I understood from him).

I asked about the fact that he is joining what has turned out to be a left-wing protest, and helping strengthen it might boomerang. Lerner's response was that he is making it clear what our intentions are for protesting, and they are different than the intentions of the general protest. Along with that, it is not our problem if t causes Netanyahu to fall - Netanyahu's seat is not our concern - affordable housing is. We have our work to do, and Netanyahu has his.

I only realized later, after I spoke with him (and did not feel like bothering him any more), that i should have asked that technically he is a member of the Likud (due to various parties merging prior to the last elections, I don't remember all the details offhand), and Lerner even ran on the Likud national list.

So, theoretically, he should probably be coordinating such moves with the Likud, and he probably should be concerned with Netanyahu, or Likud leadership, wishes and dictates. I don't know if this will boomerang against him or not. Maybe the Likud gives free reign, but I cannot imagine it will endear him on anyone in the Likud if he helps make trouble for them. Just because he intends it to be different than the general protest does not mean the media will portray it the way he intends it.

I do not support the tent protest. I don't like the general tent protest, and I think the local bet Shemesh version is going to be a bad idea. It is also too hot, especially in bet Shemesh. I dont see how people are going to sit in a tent for the next few days or weeks in temperatures that are peaking in the range of 37-38 degrees centigrade (98-100 Farenheit), but that is besides the point. i think it is politically a bad idea to support this protest.

There is absolutely nothing limiting the purchases of homes in the new construction in the hills of Bet Shemesh to haredim alone. If Old Bet Shemesh people want housing for their kids in this area, they are more than welcome to put together groups of buyers (so that it is not individuals settling in the middle of what will end up being hostile neighbors) and buy up projects that are being built. nothing is stopping them except "fear of the haredim". Get over it and buy your apartments.