Hundreds of thousands of Israelis continued their protests this week against the country's socio-economic system, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem At the beginning, the main focus was on the acute shortage of affordable housing, especially for young couples, many of them at a loss as to how to make ends meet. This has caused many such couples to leave Israel, possibly for good. Now, with hundreds of thousands of politically heterogeneous citizens joining the protests, the declared goal is no less than the complete overhaul of the socio-economic fabric of Israeli society. This week, as many as 300,000 Israelis marched through the streets of the country's major cities in protest at the high cost of living and demanding social justice. In Tel Aviv alone, more than a quarter of a million protesters chanted "the people want social justice". Even in West Jerusalem, a stronghold of ultra-fundamentalist Orthodox Jews who are traditionally wary of non-religious protests, 20,000 people held a rally, demanding a solution to the social crisis in Israel. Some of the rallies have been organised by student union leaders at Israeli universities. The head of the national student union, Itskik Shmueli, said that the protesters were trying to bring about change and that their efforts were focussed on achieving justice for the poor and underprivileged. Shmueli, speaking at the Tel Aviv rally, spoke of "a will and power to change." It is unclear whether the protest movement has a unified or politically homogeneous leadership, with the country's right-wing government and its allies alleging that "masked leftist elements" stand behind the unprecedented protests and that their aim is to overthrow the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. However, the fact that some right-wing segments of Israeli society, including busloads of settlers from West Bank settlements, have taken part in the demonstrations suggests that Israel is experiencing the kind of mobilisation that goes beyond the traditional showdown between a right-wing government and leftist or left-led protests. Yet, this has not prevented left-leaning commentators in Israel from proclaiming the protests to be "a real revolution" and the dawn of "a new independence," something which is certain to reinforce the rightist establishment's wariness and suspicions of "a leftist conspiracy." On Monday, protest leaders presented their vision for social justice and economic reforms that would meet the needs of less-privileged segments of the population. Leaders of the so-called Tent City protest, along with student leaders and representatives of social organisations and youth groups, issued a document entitled Framework of Investment for a new Socio-economic Agenda. The document outlines six principles for "an alliance between the state and its citizenry" that include actions to reduce social inequalities (economic, gender-based and national) and create social cohesion, to alter the principles of the economic system, to lower the cost of living, to achieve full employment and to impose state controls on the prices of basic items. Other principles contained in the document include giving priority to areas on the margins of Israeli cities, both in the social and geographical sense, meeting the needs of vulnerable members of the community, including the disabled, the elderly and the sick, investing in education, healthcare and security, and providing solutions to the housing shortage, as well as investing in transportation and infrastructure. It is unlikely that the Netanyahu government will be able to meet these demands, which would cost billions of dollars. Meeting them would also likely have to come at the expense of scaling back on Israeli military spending and on settlement expansion projects in the West Bank. Needless to say, any such reductions would be resisted by Netanyahu's coalition partners and might well lead to the government's collapse. One of the eventual ramifications of the evolving showdown between the most right-wing government in Israel's history and the forces of socio-economic change ranged against it might take the form of dissolving the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and holding early general elections. Were this to take place, the present ruling coalition of right-wing and religious parties would likely lose a significant chunk of its dominance in the Israeli political arena, with the forces arguing for socio-economic change riding on the momentum of their proclaimed social revolution to capture as many Knesset seats as possible. The Netanyahu government is likely to approach the possibility of holding early general elections as an exit strategy from the current problems with caution, at least until it is sufficiently confident that the right would be able to win in any new elections. The social protests in Israel are also likely to benefit the Palestinians economically and even politically. With the Israeli government preoccupied with internal problems that could topple it, its ability to squeeze the Palestinians and scuttle their legitimate aspirations will possibly be dimmed. There are also those who argue that Israel's socio-economic problems will not be resolved without first ending the occupation. Such arguments are likely to be pushed to the fore over the coming weeks and months as the protests continue. Israel, thanks to massive American aid handouts, has managed to maintain an acceptable level of socio-economic welfare at home for decades, while at the same time maintaining its military occupation of Palestinian land. Now, it seems that this formula may no longer be functioning, especially with mounting uncertainties surrounding America's own economic and financial standing.
