IS-RAELI EXPENSIVE HERE!

Soaring house prices have prompted a nationwide protest in Israel. Tent cities have popped up around the country and last Saturday around 20,000 marchers took to the streets of Tel Aviv. Elsewhere, roads are being blocked and activists have almost besieged the Knesset.

This new movement is calling for affordable housing after  house prices doubled since 2002, which along with global rises in food and gas prices, have hit ordinary Israelis. Meanwhile in some areas locals are priced out of the housing market or face a shortage of rental homes. A poll by Ha’aretz showed 87% of Israelis supported the protests.

The permanent war-footing of Israeli politics has tended to sideline domestic and economic issues andthe cabinet are now in crisis mode trying to resolve the unfamiliar situation. Their answers so far, based on building a large number of new homes mainly in central Israel, haven’t impressed the protesters who want direct action on rental prices.

The protests’ significance goes further than just putting the pressure on for lower property costs. The most active people involved in organising the demonstrations are said to be young professionals and students in their 20s and 30s, a group not previously known for their political activism.

Organising on social networking sites, demonstrators are aware of mirroring other citizen uprisings in the region  – some are even calling the protests Israel’s Arab Spring.

While the Israeli spring is unlikely to bring down the government, or spark civil war, it may have notable repercussions. The housing protests are happening against a background of economic discontent concerning low wages and a widening gap between rich and poor – a context familiar to many Europeans.

Second is the hope that the protesters’ political awakening could prompt a change in Israel’s political culture. Politics is dominated by the omnipresent issue of ‘security’ - if Israeli society is finding its voice on housing could the barriers to debate on these issues also be opened?