Exactly 10 years ago, the largest social protest in the country's history erupted. Nearly one million Israelis took part in demonstrations across the country and erected hundreds of protests encampments from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat. I, together with the "Shatil" non-profit organization, had the privilege of being among the first on the ground, accompanying and helping not only the leadership of the Rothschild Street protest camp in Tel Aviv – but mainly the camps in the periphery.
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The call for social justice first emanated from a limited circle of activists and NGO's and quickly spread to the streets and squares. The demand that the state assume responsibility for ensuring a dignified standard of living morphed from our relatively tiny outcry into a massive countrywide roar. The scope of the protests in Israel, in ratio to the overall population, was larger than any other protest movement in the world in those years.
I recognize that we accomplished some things and am grateful for the thousands of Israelis who spearheaded this wave. However, it's also clear to me that the protest movement imposed boundaries and a glass ceiling on itself. It challenged the political leadership, but not to the point of overstepping the basic lines of Israeli economics and society. The tragedy of our demand, first and foremost and on the most fundamental level, was that it failed to attract those who could have created true change. The sons and daughters of the poor, the only ones capable of engendering actual revolution.
The effort to link the Levisnky encampment of asylum seekers with the Rothschild encampment – was a failure. The attempt to link the single-mother encampment with the students in Jerusalem – was a failure. The attempt to attach the encampment of the homeless with the student camps – went nowhere. It wasn't a matter of one side or another lacking good intention. The protest failed to recognize the balance of power between the country's affluent center and the disenfranchised periphery and incorporate that into the heart of the movement. We, as leaders of the movement, also failed to address the deeper ills afflicting Israeli society.
The satiated person does not understand the hungry person. One person is fated to intergenerational hunger with exceedingly limited opportunities to exit the cycle of poverty. Others, meanwhile, face difficulties on their path to securing a spot on the pyramid of the satiated. These are two completely different worlds. Those in the light cannot see those in the dark, even if they squint. Those in the dark see those in the light very clearly, and their hearts turn bitter. And so the opportunity to foster real change falls by the wayside.
The social protests accomplished important things in terms of discourse and policies, but it was limited. Important projects that were born in the spirit of the protest movement have the potential to generate deep change.
The coronavirus pandemic is providing another opportunity for change. The American administration is using the crisis to create global taxation. It is investing trillions of dollars in infrastructure and plans to fight poverty and climate change. We can learn from them.
The social protest gave voice to an important outcry. It will only be realized if the leadership in the periphery can rally the poor and disenfranchised and project their voices to the masses.
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