This isn’t Tahrir Square
Op-ed: Tel Aviv real estate protest translates genuine housing distress into demagogic outcry
A week into the housing protest, it appears that it’s still too early to declare that Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard is our Tahrir Square. As long as we have general elections here at an impressive frequency and there is no legal problem to curse prime ministers openly, it would be impossible to produce the energy needed for a true uprising.
At the most, the protest will turn into a political change in a year or two, yet it is doubtful whether that would bring salvation to our young couples. Does Tzipi Livni know more about real estate than Benjamin Netanyahu? Is Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz less talented than Kadima’s Meir Sheetrit?
Even if the housing protest grows into a mass movement and all of Israel’s squares will be overtaken by tents, it would still be hard to be impressed. The compliments lavished on organizers this past week are greatly exaggerated. As opposed to all the words of flattery, they did not “take charge” or “take their fate into their own hands,” but rather, integrated into Israel’s ancient grumbling routine. What we have here is yet another protest whose most prominent sounds are expressions of whining. It translates true distress into a demagogic outcry.
Most residents at the Rothschild outpost have almost no idea who’s at fault for their dire state. We are not hearing from them wise proposals for improving the situation, but rather, only general fury and plenty of self-pity. Their decision to settle in a transient tent city is perceived in their view as a heroic act, after which they need not do anything, just wait for others to do the job for them: The Israeli government, city hall, the media, mom and dad. “I’ve been sleeping outdoors for five days now,” said one protestor on TV. Wow.
Blame the parents
The rebellion against cottage cheese prices was much more successful and credible, because it was focused. The organizers’ rhetoric did not resort to routine demagoguery against the regular scapegoats (the government, the Treasury, any and all politicians.) Boycott initiator Itzik Elrov did not whine; he simply boycotted. From the first moment to the happy end he directed his accusations at a very specific address – the Tnuva dairy company.
According to that same logic, the housing protest should have been directed mostly against contractors and homeowners. Yet there is a small problem here: The contractors and homeowners are no longer a detached top echelon, as was the case in the cottage cheese affair – they are the whole nation of Israel. The greed that prompted housing prices to skyrocket swept most of us. Anyone who got on this bandwagon and raised rent prices with no connection to their original investment is like the Tnuva CEO of the housing crisis.
Or in other words: A large part of the young people who moved into the photogenic tents at the square this past week have parents who rent out a small apartment for 5,000 shekels a month or at least an uncle who is a contractor. Instead of blaming them, it’s easier to spill a glass of water on Likud Knesset Member Miri Regev.
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