A Rallying Cry in Israel: ‘Lower the Rent!’

What started in mid-July as a minor protest—two dozen tents pitched in a posh section of Tel Aviv—has morphed into a full-blown citizen’s movement in Israel. The tent camps have spread to other choice avenues in Tel Aviv and cropped up in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beersheba. More than 250,000 people filled the streets outside Israel’s Defense Ministry on Aug. 6 at a “Rally for Social Justice” replete with protest leaders and local rock stars.

At the heart of the movement is the anger of ordinary Israelis at the surging cost of housing. Prices have increased about 40 percent in the last three years, in part the result of Israel’s “very slow” planning and construction process, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said on Aug. 1. They rose 13.7 percent in the 12 months through April-May, about triple the inflation rate, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported on July 15. Israel ranked fourth in the Knight Frank Global House Price Index for the first quarter of 2011, trailing only Hong Kong, India, and Taiwan.