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Tel Aviv tent city. 'Main problem: Lack of physical and economic stability'
Photo: Yaron Brener

Poll: Tent protestors worried about future

In order to understand what social protestors really think, Professor Samuel Shye decided to conduct a survey. 'They cannot see a horizon; they feel that more and more goals are moving further away and feel powerless,' he says

The social protest stems mainly from concerns regarding the future and a perceived lack of physical and financial security, according to findings of a survey conducted among the tent protestors by Professor Samuel Shye from the Hebrew University.

 

Professor Shye, a statistics specialist and the founder of the Center for Social Justice and Democracy at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, held the survey among 129 tent protestors sampled from the main tent sites in Tel-Aviv (94) and Jerusalem (35).

 

According to Shye, "Many experts offer economic and other solutions to improve the social-economic situation in response to the protests; however, before we come up with economic and social remedies to protestors' claims, we must identify the underlying problems and distress".

 

Eighty-one percent of the survey's participants (79% of the participants were from Tel-Aviv and 89% from Jerusalem) mentioned that concerns regarding the future and the lack of physical and economic stability constitute the main problems effecting the quality of life in Israel.

 

"The participants cannot see a horizon," says Shye. "They feel that more and more goals are moving further away because of steep price rises, and they fear they will not be able to have a reasonable life in the future. This is manifested in housing issues. For example, 'How will I be able to afford an apartment?'; 'How will I be able to help my children buy an apartment?'

 

"The findings indicate that the protestors should put forward claims first and foremost relating to their financial security – that includes job security and pension security for when they retire."

 

Sixty-three percent of respondents said the main cause of the protests was the feeling that they hold no sway over event in Israel's society, and 59% said that the protests stemmed from "difficulties in dealing with government bodies."

 

Shye argues that "there is discontent over their ability to influence politics in Israel. They feel that making a political contribution once every four years is not enough. We have here a challenge of the highest level: we must find ways to include the citizens of Israel in the state's democratic processes to a greater extent."

 

Click here to read this report in Hebrew

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.27.11, 08:37
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