Tent City Movement Grows in Israel

Tent City Grows - The Dish

Add up the estimates of 300,000 in Tel Aviv and 30,000 in Jerusalem and more elsewhere and you come to this startling idea: one out of every 20 Israelis was on the streets demanding a better country Saturday night – the equivalent of three million people in France, four million in Egypt, 15 million in the United States. And those comparisons themselves shatter, because, as Ma’ariv’s NRG site reported, the police couldn’t possibly keep track of the crowd that broke down gates and overflowed into alleys and side streets. Or as a police source told the paper: “This is the biggest demonstration we’ve ever, ever faced. We’re seeing hundreds of cars that have simply been left on the Ayalon Freeway and people are walking to the demonstration.” And that’s besides the people who couldn’t get on the overpacked trains to Tel Aviv.

This is kind of a complex issue but I'll try and simplify it the best that I can. Basically, there is a housing "shortage" in Israel and to steal a phrase from Jimmy McMillan: "The rent is too damn high!" Israelis have taken to the streets in protest of the sky-rocketing cost of living. With cities like Tel Aviv unwilling to take on more density and build upwards and the desert being uninhabitable, that leaves only one other option: settlements. As Matt Yglesias explains this puts pressure on the Israeli government to expand settlements into the Palestinian territories. Of course this adds yet another complex dimension to a conflict with no foreseeable end in sight.