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1 of the 300,000
Aug. 7th, 2011 06:46 pmYesterday Israelis took to the street again, for the third week in a row.
Mass demonstrations and protests, which are planned during the weeks in the tent cities that have mushroomed all over the show.
The main reason this is happening now?
Because the neo-liberal economic system is hurting everyone and finally we middle class peeps don't have pockets as deep as we thought.
Yes, this is an economic justice protest, it is a socially political protest, it is a demonstration of my favourite thing - Vox Populi.
I was one of the 300,000 that walked the streets, I didn't sleep last night and I'm still wiped, who knows when I'll have a proper night's sleep this week.
On Twitter, someone asked, why are we having such huge protests if we are a democracy and chose our leaders through elections?
I didn't answer at the time, but I'll answer here, because it's true we are not like Tunisia and Egypt, though economic justice and welfare were the bottom line in many cases for those demonstrations as well (there are still people in Tahrir), but the fact that our fear, Israeli Jewish fear to be precise, for our survival in a hostile territory created a voting system based on national security rather then job security, affordable housing, a proper welfare system and public health care - every single one of those aspects of Israeli life has been eroded through privatisation (school children aren't getting their vaccines because of privatised school nursing system) and de-regulation (people can't buy milk and cheese and fruit and vegetables!).
And so we reached a brink, there's an idiom in Hebrew is to say enough is enough, literally it means "The water has reached our breath/spirit" and never before have I seen so many people demanding to what should have always been there.
And finally, little by little, I'm seeing more and more people demanding political justice as well, calling an end to the Occupation - because though it is the moral and ethical thing to do, it is also the practical thing to do. The Occupation take money out of our pockets and is used to opress another people in economic and political dire straights.
Come September, and the UN bid for Statehood, if things don't get moving, this whole summer may be a waste.
I have hope, actually, for real, seeing all those people, being among them with my friends, it's enough to start a revolution of some kind.
Mass demonstrations and protests, which are planned during the weeks in the tent cities that have mushroomed all over the show.
The main reason this is happening now?
Because the neo-liberal economic system is hurting everyone and finally we middle class peeps don't have pockets as deep as we thought.
Yes, this is an economic justice protest, it is a socially political protest, it is a demonstration of my favourite thing - Vox Populi.
I was one of the 300,000 that walked the streets, I didn't sleep last night and I'm still wiped, who knows when I'll have a proper night's sleep this week.
On Twitter, someone asked, why are we having such huge protests if we are a democracy and chose our leaders through elections?
I didn't answer at the time, but I'll answer here, because it's true we are not like Tunisia and Egypt, though economic justice and welfare were the bottom line in many cases for those demonstrations as well (there are still people in Tahrir), but the fact that our fear, Israeli Jewish fear to be precise, for our survival in a hostile territory created a voting system based on national security rather then job security, affordable housing, a proper welfare system and public health care - every single one of those aspects of Israeli life has been eroded through privatisation (school children aren't getting their vaccines because of privatised school nursing system) and de-regulation (people can't buy milk and cheese and fruit and vegetables!).
And so we reached a brink, there's an idiom in Hebrew is to say enough is enough, literally it means "The water has reached our breath/spirit" and never before have I seen so many people demanding to what should have always been there.
And finally, little by little, I'm seeing more and more people demanding political justice as well, calling an end to the Occupation - because though it is the moral and ethical thing to do, it is also the practical thing to do. The Occupation take money out of our pockets and is used to opress another people in economic and political dire straights.
Come September, and the UN bid for Statehood, if things don't get moving, this whole summer may be a waste.
I have hope, actually, for real, seeing all those people, being among them with my friends, it's enough to start a revolution of some kind.
