Picspam: cost of living protest in Rothschild Boulevard
It is probably the least of the news in international circuits, but for the past few weeks the leading headlines have been about the housing prices/cost of living prices protest taking place in the heart of Tel Aviv and other cities around the country. here is Haaretz's general coverage; here is a nice little Wikipedia blurb. The gist of it is: everything is disproportionately expensive! People don't like it. The protest was started by a 25-year-old recent uni grad named Daphne Leef, who set up a tent in the middle of Rothschild Blvd in protest of the high rental prices for apartments in Tel Aviv, and invited people to camp out with her until someone in the government did something.
Three weeks later, this is what the street looks like:
Tents have been pitched all over the boulevard. It's pretty amazing.
In the past few weeks a lot of other causes have piggybacked on this one protest, given its media coverage, which makes it grow both by sheer number of people but also abstractly -- but which also makes the entire affair pretty disorganized. Still, there seems to be some kind of order governing the campers' day to day lives. (Most campers don't actually stay in their tents all day long -- a lot of these tents are empty - but the street is always filled with supporters regardless.)
In between the general camping activities, there've also been marches and demonstrations in other places in the city, for other causes (gas prices; the high cost of parenting; etc). It's almost funny that I've heard some people discussing the protests and calling them non-political, because social welfare in this country is barely considered political; Politics is a term commonly reserved for other issues entirely.
Anyway. We went up there today, to see what the street actually looked like. We took the dog.
JOYRIDE. Doggie's going to the CITY she's gonna have a PARTAY
Doggie FREAKS OUT WHAT ARE ALL THESE SOUNDS SMELLS PEOPLE WHAT
People hanging out between tents
"Housing is not a luxury!" and "This settlement isn't supported by the government!"
"General meeting at 3 at tent 199 (south of Shenkin st) regarding: electing representatives for the Rothschild camp-out"
As you can probably see, it's not a violent protest; the tents are all very peaceful, and overall it feels more like a festival than like any kind of angry protest, but it's still growing, and the government is... kind of freaking out. They're used to protests by fringe groups. They don't know what to do with all these middle class people out in the streets, but it looks like they've decided not to entirely ignore them.
"I too want a slice of the pie"
"And in those days there was no king in Israel..."
And then there was a street party! Because that is how they roll in Tel Aviv. There was a DJ and people dancing from their balconies (behind the Gilad Shalit sign).
"Think big"
Sign advertising an event happening "at the tipi" tonight.
...the tipi.
"Free market: Feel free to grab anything you like!"
Someone had made stickers with address numbers for "Tent Boulevard"
"We're being played -- Bibi, we're not cards"
Some kind of holding-hands-for-solidarity moment of silence
Fairies! Ugh this was the cutest thing. Someone had decorated the railing of this small decorative pond with these fairy statues, and people left post its naming each one. This is the Freedom and Acceptance Fairy
The Equal Opportunities For Women Fairy
The Bibi-Go-Home Fairy
The Self-Esteem Fairy and the Right Questions Fairy
Afternoon nap
I'm not posting pics of all the guitar players hanging out there -- which there are a lot of -- but I loved this random classic ensemble who played a few pieces. They're not an actual ensemble -- just this musician who called some friends and friends-of-friends and they rehearsed these pieces once and then came down to play in the street.
lol revolutionaries. WHY DOES EVERYONE IN TEL AVIV LOOK STONED.
"Storytelling hour" publicizing that every day, an author will come (well, came earlier this week) to a certain tent and read aloud from their books. The list is all of well-known, mainstream authors.
On the ground, Daphne Leef -- the girl who started the protest -- talking to some, well, fans
I know it's weird to compare, but if this were New York, imagine that this were happening in Times Square and Broadway. If this were Paris, imagine the Champs Elysee. We don't have any equivalents in size, but this is the closest in importance. And boulevardiness. We don't actually have a lot of boulevards.
Ha, I can't actually read what the writing on the flag says. I tried figuring it out but I am stumped.
Because in Tel Aviv, we protest with style. In the back, by the way, you can see that someone tapes a sign on the street name - instead of saying "Rothschild Blvd", it says "If I Were A Rothschild Blvd". "If I were a Rothschild" is the Hebrew translation of the Fiddler on the Roof lyric "If I were a rich man"...
A tent with the sign "Here reside merrily" and the residents names -- a common sign on front doors of apartments here.
An Arab-Jewish protest tent, with writing in both languages. My favorite is the tiny sign at the bottom left, which reads "כאן מתבוללים בכיף" -- "here assimilate merrily", and by assimilate they mean interfaith fucking.
TOO MANY DOGS ON THE DANCE FLOOR /Interlude. She was so scared, guys, it was so cute and terrible. I don't know if she's ever been around this many people.
marina's favorite sign: the Magneto helmet of love.
yeah this is where I just started taking photos of people
SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.
ugh they were so cute, these two tiny girls
The end! Time for City Dog to go back to the country where she belongs.
So, yeah. All in all -- it is an impressive feat and a very nice atmosphere and I don't know, I hope it's going good places.
BONUS BECAUSE I CAN'T POST A PHOTO OF THOSE ABS JUST ONCE:
.........yeah.
(apologies if you've already seen this on DW :-))
Three weeks later, this is what the street looks like:
Tents have been pitched all over the boulevard. It's pretty amazing.
In the past few weeks a lot of other causes have piggybacked on this one protest, given its media coverage, which makes it grow both by sheer number of people but also abstractly -- but which also makes the entire affair pretty disorganized. Still, there seems to be some kind of order governing the campers' day to day lives. (Most campers don't actually stay in their tents all day long -- a lot of these tents are empty - but the street is always filled with supporters regardless.)
In between the general camping activities, there've also been marches and demonstrations in other places in the city, for other causes (gas prices; the high cost of parenting; etc). It's almost funny that I've heard some people discussing the protests and calling them non-political, because social welfare in this country is barely considered political; Politics is a term commonly reserved for other issues entirely.
Anyway. We went up there today, to see what the street actually looked like. We took the dog.
JOYRIDE. Doggie's going to the CITY she's gonna have a PARTAY
Doggie FREAKS OUT WHAT ARE ALL THESE SOUNDS SMELLS PEOPLE WHAT
People hanging out between tents
"Housing is not a luxury!" and "This settlement isn't supported by the government!"
"General meeting at 3 at tent 199 (south of Shenkin st) regarding: electing representatives for the Rothschild camp-out"
As you can probably see, it's not a violent protest; the tents are all very peaceful, and overall it feels more like a festival than like any kind of angry protest, but it's still growing, and the government is... kind of freaking out. They're used to protests by fringe groups. They don't know what to do with all these middle class people out in the streets, but it looks like they've decided not to entirely ignore them.
"I too want a slice of the pie"
"And in those days there was no king in Israel..."
And then there was a street party! Because that is how they roll in Tel Aviv. There was a DJ and people dancing from their balconies (behind the Gilad Shalit sign).
"Think big"
Sign advertising an event happening "at the tipi" tonight.
...the tipi.
"Free market: Feel free to grab anything you like!"
Someone had made stickers with address numbers for "Tent Boulevard"
"We're being played -- Bibi, we're not cards"
Some kind of holding-hands-for-solidarity moment of silence
Fairies! Ugh this was the cutest thing. Someone had decorated the railing of this small decorative pond with these fairy statues, and people left post its naming each one. This is the Freedom and Acceptance Fairy
The Equal Opportunities For Women Fairy
The Bibi-Go-Home Fairy
The Self-Esteem Fairy and the Right Questions Fairy
Afternoon nap
I'm not posting pics of all the guitar players hanging out there -- which there are a lot of -- but I loved this random classic ensemble who played a few pieces. They're not an actual ensemble -- just this musician who called some friends and friends-of-friends and they rehearsed these pieces once and then came down to play in the street.
lol revolutionaries. WHY DOES EVERYONE IN TEL AVIV LOOK STONED.
"Storytelling hour" publicizing that every day, an author will come (well, came earlier this week) to a certain tent and read aloud from their books. The list is all of well-known, mainstream authors.
On the ground, Daphne Leef -- the girl who started the protest -- talking to some, well, fans
I know it's weird to compare, but if this were New York, imagine that this were happening in Times Square and Broadway. If this were Paris, imagine the Champs Elysee. We don't have any equivalents in size, but this is the closest in importance. And boulevardiness. We don't actually have a lot of boulevards.
Ha, I can't actually read what the writing on the flag says. I tried figuring it out but I am stumped.
Because in Tel Aviv, we protest with style. In the back, by the way, you can see that someone tapes a sign on the street name - instead of saying "Rothschild Blvd", it says "If I Were A Rothschild Blvd". "If I were a Rothschild" is the Hebrew translation of the Fiddler on the Roof lyric "If I were a rich man"...
A tent with the sign "Here reside merrily" and the residents names -- a common sign on front doors of apartments here.
An Arab-Jewish protest tent, with writing in both languages. My favorite is the tiny sign at the bottom left, which reads "כאן מתבוללים בכיף" -- "here assimilate merrily", and by assimilate they mean interfaith fucking.
TOO MANY DOGS ON THE DANCE FLOOR /Interlude. She was so scared, guys, it was so cute and terrible. I don't know if she's ever been around this many people.
marina's favorite sign: the Magneto helmet of love.
yeah this is where I just started taking photos of people
SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.
ugh they were so cute, these two tiny girls
The end! Time for City Dog to go back to the country where she belongs.
So, yeah. All in all -- it is an impressive feat and a very nice atmosphere and I don't know, I hope it's going good places.
BONUS BECAUSE I CAN'T POST A PHOTO OF THOSE ABS JUST ONCE:
.........yeah.
(apologies if you've already seen this on DW :-))