TEL AVIV — On any other day, Rothschild
Boulevard is known for its hip restaurants, beautifully renovated
Bauhaus buildings, and the headquarters of Israel's largest banks. Today,
walking down the tent-filled boulevard, one could mistakenly feel as if he or
she has landed in the heart of a Middle Eastern Woodstock festival. Couples
smoke waterpipes as jazz musicians compete with folk bands for their attention,
jugglers play next to political art installations, and people walk by ad-hoc
kitchens that offer free food to all. Yet passers by are called to join
discussion groups addressing the erosion of the Israeli welfare state, and
inside the larger tents talks are given about cartels and corporate
accountability. In this Israeli Hyde Park, a new discourse has been ignited.
Rather than focusing on security and peace, the conversation centers on social justice, with Israelis articulating their aspiration for a state that cares
and provides for all its citizens.
"We want
the future they promised us, a future in which we could own a home, give our
children adequate education and have a functioning health system," says Efrat
Melter, a 34-year-old law student who runs a Facebook gender equality group.
"We don't want to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict anymore. When
doing that we are only throwing sand in our eyes, while the government and the
rich are stealing our money and the country's infrastructure." All of
a sudden, middle-class Israelis are refusing to play according to their
prescribed roles. At least for now, for the duration of this protest, the core
issues around which they mobilize are not only the right/left and anti/pro-occupation
fault lines that have divided Israeli society for the past decades. Instead,
they are now fiercely rallying for economic justice. The enemies are no longer
the Palestinians but are instead the "tycoons," Israel's wealthy elite, which is
blamed for corrupting politicians into allowing them to form unofficial cartels that keep salaries low and the cost of living
high.
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