TEL AVIV, Israel—A housing crisis that has been brewing for years in Israel, boiled over this week into mass street protests in Tel Aviv and a march to the Knesset in the capital of Jerusalem.
What started as a small protest on Facebook by Daphni Leef, 26, a freelance filmmaker protesting high rents on July 14, has spread across the country. For over a week, “tent cities” have sprouted up around the country, starting with 10 tents on Rothschild Blvd. in Tel Aviv. By Saturday night, tens of thousands of people from across Israel rallied in central Tel Aviv.
The protesters, largely young adults but also joined by Israelis from a transection of society, are demanding changes to government housing policy, soaring rents, and social inequalities, in what is quickly becoming a large-scale civil protest movement.
Speakers who took the stage at Saturday’s rally were not politicians, but teachers, social workers, and students demanding not only rent reductions and more housing, but lower prices on basic food items, changes to the education system, and better salaries in the health system.
“We know that there are more voices who would like to be heard today. There are retired people, disable people, and others who would like to be heard, and we promise you all—your voice will be heard in our future rallies,” Leef told an enthusiastic crowd at the rally.
At the end of the rally the crowd shouted, “Bibi [Prime Minister Netanyahu] you are fired!”
The housing issue is a long-standing problem in Israel, which successive governments have not been able to solve.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his opening remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, “The distress is real. ... [E]ven before I became prime minister, I asked a professional committee headed by Yuval Steinitz to prepare a plan to resolve the fundamental problem of the housing market in Israel.”
Netanyahu devoted almost all of his remarks, save for a few words of shock and condolences for the attacks in Norway, to what he called “a housing crisis that is finding public expression.”
The housing shortage and high cost of apartments in Israel make it extremely difficult for young couples and discharged soldiers to find a place to live forcing them to live with parents and in-laws.
Red tape is also a significant issue, exacerbated by the high competition for apartments.
“When you find an apartment you want to rent you have to go through an investigation by the potential landlord who wants to know everything about you, your salary, your parents, your way of life, your gender, your sexual orientation, and of course you have to compete with dozens of others wanting these apartments and then you have to give all sorts of guarantees the landlords require,” said one protester who preferred to remain anonymous.
Next... Average apartment of 1,076 sq. feet costs about US$ 324,000
Netanyahu devoted almost all of his remarks, save for a few words of shock and condolences for the attacks in Norway, to what he called “a housing crisis that is finding public expression.”
The housing shortage and high cost of apartments in Israel make it extremely difficult for young couples and discharged soldiers to find a place to live forcing them to live with parents and in-laws.
Red tape is also a significant issue, exacerbated by the high competition for apartments.
“When you find an apartment you want to rent you have to go through an investigation by the potential landlord who wants to know everything about you, your salary, your parents, your way of life, your gender, your sexual orientation, and of course you have to compete with dozens of others wanting these apartments and then you have to give all sorts of guarantees the landlords require,” said one protester who preferred to remain anonymous.
Next... Average apartment of 1,076 sq. feet costs about US$ 324,000
The average apartment in Israel of about 100 sq. meters (1,076 sq. feet) costs roughly 1.1 million shekels ($324,000) to buy, with prices rising every year. House prices in Israel rose 3.5 percent in the first six months of 2011.
Rental rates in most cities have gone up by over 10 percent in the past year, with the average monthly rent for an apartment now at about 3,000 shekels ($885). A cramped room in central Tel Aviv costs about 2,000 shekels per month ($590).
A service worker makes on average about $1,200 per month, which is about the same as the newly raised minimum wage of $6 an hour. Someone in the construction industry can make about $2,100 per month.
Red tape is also a major problem at the policy level. Netanyahu himself mentioned at the Cabinet meeting on Sunday the problem of “cumbersome planning committees, the most cumbersome in the Western world or nearly so.” He said because of this, it takes at least five years to plan a new apartment in Israel.
Rental rates in most cities have gone up by over 10 percent in the past year, with the average monthly rent for an apartment now at about 3,000 shekels ($885). A cramped room in central Tel Aviv costs about 2,000 shekels per month ($590).
A service worker makes on average about $1,200 per month, which is about the same as the newly raised minimum wage of $6 an hour. Someone in the construction industry can make about $2,100 per month.
Red tape is also a major problem at the policy level. Netanyahu himself mentioned at the Cabinet meeting on Sunday the problem of “cumbersome planning committees, the most cumbersome in the Western world or nearly so.” He said because of this, it takes at least five years to plan a new apartment in Israel.
The prime minister also described the bottleneck of the government monopoly that holds over 90 percent of the land in Israel, but is not releasing it; first because of the inefficient planning committees; And second, because when new apartments are finally released, by another body called Israel Land Administration (ILA), they are released very slowly, and at high prices.
Netanyahu said he has fought for two years to change both of these practices and as a result, 45,000 new apartments will be released this year, about 50 percent higher than the yearly average over the past decade.
Moreover, the government this week will pass reforms of the ILA and the planning and building committees, “so that the ’supertanker' may take off. “ And until these changes come into effect, he said he will implement various measures over the next 12 to 18 months to help young couples, students, and other needy populations.
However, many of the protest groups do not see this as much of a solution. A lot of the land Netanyahu referred to is not where they want to be living, in city centers, and does not meet their real needs.
The Association of for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) calls the government’s plan “a media spin,” which “will lead to flawed housing plans.” The group says the plan does not provide for minimal quality of life.
“It does not include any minimal requirements for building affordable housing or public housing of any kind, not even public housing for disabled persons, and does not equip the authorities with any budgetary or administrative tools to encourage these kinds of housing development,” says ACRI in a release on July 20.
Netanyahu said he has fought for two years to change both of these practices and as a result, 45,000 new apartments will be released this year, about 50 percent higher than the yearly average over the past decade.
Moreover, the government this week will pass reforms of the ILA and the planning and building committees, “so that the ’supertanker' may take off. “ And until these changes come into effect, he said he will implement various measures over the next 12 to 18 months to help young couples, students, and other needy populations.
However, many of the protest groups do not see this as much of a solution. A lot of the land Netanyahu referred to is not where they want to be living, in city centers, and does not meet their real needs.
The Association of for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) calls the government’s plan “a media spin,” which “will lead to flawed housing plans.” The group says the plan does not provide for minimal quality of life.
“It does not include any minimal requirements for building affordable housing or public housing of any kind, not even public housing for disabled persons, and does not equip the authorities with any budgetary or administrative tools to encourage these kinds of housing development,” says ACRI in a release on July 20.
