|
Aug. 26, 2011
Movement reveals shift
Israeli citizens want leaders to pay attention.
ARIEH O’SULLIVAN AND FELICE FRIEDSON THE MEDIA LINE
Noga Stern cradles her infant son to her breast. A mother of eight, she is disturbed, but definitely not bitter, that the fruits of social and economic justice have failed to reach her and has now found herself camping out with protesters in downtown Jerusalem.
“I am very happy that there has been an uprising. It shows that we are no longer a flock of sheep, that we aren’t imbeciles and that we have been able to remove the blinders that the government had placed before our eyes,” Stern said.
“What is happening here is something very beautiful,” she continued. “The protest here is joyous – a protest without violence, a protest with intelligence, a protest without any politics at all, a protest that wants change, fundamental change.”
The social justice movement that has rocked Israel in recent weeks has shaken off years of apathy by the country’s public and brought hundreds of thousands into the streets. People have set up tent camps protesting the country’s high food costs, out-of-reach prices for housing and an eroding health-care system.
The difference between these protests and previous episodes of discontent is that lower- and middle-class Israelis are refusing to play according to the old playbook, which often called for bringing down the government and holding new elections. Today’s protesters want to see the present government change its policies and stop what they see as the capitalistic erosion of the Israeli state.
“We don’t need elections now. It costs a lot and is a big mess,” said Nufar Kaplan, one of the student organizers of the protests in Jerusalem. “What we need is to speak with the present government and get some results.”
She added, “We have a democracy, but it is just not a very good one.”
Israel has always prided itself as the only true democracy in the Middle East, and nothing would seem to evidence this more than the robust Israeli public debate and its value of free speech. Still, Israelis are starting to question whether even these features have eroded.
“This country is not democratic,” said Rani Gytya, a pub owner who takes pause to contemplate the struggle to make a shekel these days. “It is turning out to be very dictatorial, very much so. We, as citizens, have no rights. What we want, we don’t get. The government does whatever it wants. We vote, but everything is corrupt.”
Israel’s economy is among the fastest growing in the developed world, with gross domestic product expanding at a 4.6 percent annual rate in the first quarter, while the jobless rate – 5.8 percent, compared with 7.2 percent in Canada and 9.2 percent in the United States – is the lowest in more than two decades. But wage growth has been stagnant, while prices, for everything from hummus to houses, are high by Western standards. The gap between Israel’s rich and poor has never been so wide.
“The majority of Israelis have no idea what democracy is because the average Israeli sees it as going to elections every three or four years. They don’t understand that, those elected have to keep their promises,” said businessman Amos Givon, sipping an espresso on Jerusalem’s Hillel Street. “The French are a good example of democracy. They haven’t forgotten what a guillotine is. A politician who forgot his promises is not forgiven. Israelis don’t understand that yet, but they are starting to learn.”
Prof. Yedidia Stern (no relation to Noga Stern), vice-president of the Israel Democracy Institute, said that, while Israel has a strong democracy, the political structure is not stable. According to him, the public is not yet calling for elections because the public protest is against all Israeli governments – not just the one presently in power.
“The economic social order of Israel was very much capitalistic,” he explained. “It was oriented to privatization, and some of the people are against this agenda, which is the agenda of all past governments in the last two decades, so replacing this government will not change much.”
While protesters have fiercely rallied for economic justice, he said, what is remarkable about this protest movement is the level of civil discourse and the absence of violence.
“The Americans say of themselves ‘United we stand.’ We, in Israel, are proud of the saying, ‘Divided we stand.’ We are very divided and we are proud of that. However, the level of violence is very, very low, almost not violent at all, while we are debating each other,” Stern said.
The regional unrest and recent terrorist attacks notwithstanding, Israel is going through a relatively quiet and peaceful time. No wars are looming with its neighbors, and Palestinians, too, are enjoying a prosperity that has reduced the propensity for violence.
According to Stern, the issue on most Israelis’ minds today is not security or the peace process. “For the first time, I see a huge debate about an issue that has nothing to do with security and foreign policy, which is a new phenomenon in Israel. I think this is very good for us. I do believe that the government is listening to the people right now and we are starting to see some kind of negotiations that will lead to a new social contract,” he said.
But Givon is more skeptical. The general public’s fundamental epiphany that elections are not going to solve problems is “very deep and significant,” he said. He worries that this could be reversed if conflict with Israel’s neighbors were to break out. “If there will be a little war, it seems everything will return back to what it was – and that appears to be just what the government wants.”
What experts believe Israeli society needs is a good civics lesson. “The truth is, we teach our kids not enough civics studies. I served as the chair of civics studies in Israel and, my feeling is, we have to invest much more in this specific field of knowledge,” Stern stressed.
The Citizen’s Empowerment Centre in Israel is working to improve civics and debate among Israeli high school students. They have also been pushing for reforming Israel’s political structure to encourage voting.
Changing political structure and building a new leadership takes time and resources, said Yuval Lipkin, the centre’s director. To this end, CEC has been busy setting up debate clubs in more than 100 high schools in the country and are offering their civics curriculum as an online program with the aim of empowering citizens with a better understanding of their rights and obligations, in order to encourage greater civic involvement.
“After our campaign, the youth will take it to Facebook, Twitter and websites,” Lipkin said. “We need to take it one step forward and to explain to them how it will affect their lives, and the beds in the hospitals and the house prices. If we change the political structure, we can change a lot.”
^TOP
|
