Arlene from Israel
28 July '11
In my last posting, I described demonstrations by those who are unhappy with the housing situation in the country.
Everything I wrote with regard to this situation is true. In fact, there is strong indication that the Israeli governments of the last several years (it's not just this government) have failed to involve themselves in ways that would have ameliorated the situation.
The Knesset Research and Information Center has just released a report comparing Israeli housing policies to those of the US, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Australia. Its findings are that these other countries act to moderate housing market fluctuations, via such things as construction subsidies for contractors offering cheap housing.
By contrast, successive Israeli governments over the last 10 years have decreased involvement in the housing market. In the last two years there has been a sharp increase in housing costs. In fact, according to figures from Bank Hapoalim, the real value of housing here has increased by 9.7% just in the last year, and by an astonishing 41% since 2007.
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And yet... this is not the whole picture of what's going on now.
In Israel, everything is politics. This is no exception:
There is solid reason to believe that the housing issue is being used to coalesce people with the goal of bringing down the Netanyahu government. Which is not to say they will necessarily succeed.
"Im Tirtzu," a student activist group that is identified as right-wing, had originally joined the housing protest but then just over a week ago pulled out of the main tent city on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, because of questions about the political aims of the organizers.
Ronen Shoval, founder of Im Tirtzu, met with some of the protest organizers before the pull-out, and subsequently reported that they refused repeated requests to negotiate with the government to resolve the crisis.
“When one isn’t interested in having a conversation with the government, the problem won’t be solved. I was trying to convince them to speak to the government, but how many times can you try?
“Conversations with the Rothschild Boulevard organizers made it clear that the group is not looking for solutions; they are looking to protest.”
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At the same time, one analyst, looking at the make-up of the protesters, observed that very few were dati -- religious -- even though religious couples, who tend to have large families, are surely very much affected by housing shortages.
What are we looking at here? The religious are much more likely to be right wing, while the Tel Aviv crowd is significantly left. Is this a factor?
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Now Netanyahu has come forward with a plan to address housing problems. Is it adequate? I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to respond with certainty. What I have heard is that the 50,000 units he projects for the next 18 months to two years would address the shortage to date but not provide for the future. But it's a start, which might reflect new policies. And it's coupled with a projected 10,000 new student dormitory units and other innovations.
One might expect either a wait-and-see-how-it-unfolds attitude among the protesters, or a readiness at last to meet with the prime minister and let him know that, while his announcement is a beginning, they think even more has to be done.
But what we're seeing instead is a digging in of their heels. The initial response was hostile: "You think we're fools, to accept this?" Some of the tent cities -- most significantly that in Tel Aviv -- are being dismantled by the police because they're illegal. But the protesters have let it be known that this will not deter them.
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But wait!
In Tel Aviv, demonstrators have now produced a newspaper of sorts, being distributed free on the streets. It includes a poem that ends with the verses, "we have lost our rights to this country, and it's doubtful we'll get them back."
In Jerusalem, demonstrators carried a sign that said, "Welfare State Now!"
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What we're seeing then is a clash of social ideologies that is much bigger than the housing problem.
Binyamin Netanyahu, during his tenure as Finance Minister (2003-2005), instituted several reforms that are credited with having strengthened the country, and with very sound reason. Under his stewardship, the welfare society that had been established by left-learning Labor governments at the founding of the State and for decades thereafter was no more. Increased privatization was in, and so were reduced benefits to the population.
Had those reforms not been in place, we certainly would not have weathered the recent global fiscal crisis as resoundingly well as we have, and would not be growing as we are. The welfare system would have sapped the nation impossibly.
But even as we have been seeing the strengthening of the nation as a whole, there are some citizens within who are struggling. The gap between the poorest and the richest has increased; those who run soup kitchens attest to this.
Please understand, however, that we're looking at a relative adjustment in our system, not an absolute one: we still have a socialized medical system, and a variety of perks are in place, including financial assistance (reduced but not eliminated) for those with large families.
We will not -- we cannot and must not -- return to the fiscal policies of the earlier Labor governments. But the concerns of those who are struggling -- as with regard to the housing -- must be addressed at some level.
The double-pronged question now is:
How productively/effectively can Netanyahu respond to the immediate issues of those who are demonstrating in the streets?
And -- the very real and significant flip side of this picture -- how prepared are the demonstrators to truly hear what he says, rather than simply hoping to bring him down?
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Opposition leader Tzipi Livni (Kadima) is making the most of these protests. I would not have expected her to do otherwise.
But here's the irony: while the demonstrators have focused their ire on Netanyahu, the fact is that, with regard to housing problems, it is also Kadima that was guilty of decreased involvement. (Olmert of Kadima was prime minister from 2006 - 2009.)
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One other significant political factor with regard to the housing problem must be mentioned:
In an unprecedented concession to the Obama administration, from November 2009 through September 2010, Netanyahu instituted a freeze on housing construction in Judea and Samaria. Although that freeze has been lifted officially, it continues de facto to a considerable degree not only in Judea and Samaria, but also in Jerusalem beyond the Green Line. This, without a doubt, has exacerbated the housing shortage.
On Tuesday, MKs from the Knesset Land of Israel lobby released a statement to the media with regard to this:
“We call on the prime minister to remove the political barriers preventing construction in Judea and Samaria, and to allow for an immediate housing solution for the thousands [of people who live] in areas of broad national consensus in Judea and Samaria and in [eastern] Jerusalem.”
I would add a thought to this statement: Yes, young people in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem have trouble finding adequate housing. But what this does is drive them into Israel within the Green Line searching for housing, thus further driving up the prices of apartments and diminishing the available supply there. Were there a concerted effort to do building in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, it would shift the entire dynamic for the better.
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Nachi Eyal, who heads the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, also sent a letter to Netanyahu, reflecting concerns similar to those of the Knesset lobby:
“Like many others, we listened attentively to the plan you presented today with the Finance and Housing ministers to solve the housing shortage in Israel.
“Unfortunately, the complex solutions and measures presented did not make one reference to an existing problem: the lack of construction in Judea and Samaria.
“A plan which ignores the housing shortage in Judea and Samaria and the cessation of construction there solely for political considerations of the defense minister [who must sign off on construction in Judea and Samaria] is a plan that is lacking. If the government really wanted to lower the housing prices it would allow construction and promote construction in Judea and Samaria.”
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Eyal wrote an opinion piece about this -- "The real root of the housing shortage" -- in the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. And here he fingers yet another part of the problem:
"The demonstrating student who dreams of purchasing a three-room apartment in Kfar Saba doesn't understand that as well as the government's shortcomings and the not-so-simple market, leftist organizations are also to blame. The student sitting beside him on the grass, the one who volunteers for Peace Now on Saturdays and goes around settlements taking pictures of housing starts, is a hidden partner in the increase of apartment prices.
"Yes, pressure from extreme left-wing organizations such as Peace Now, Yesh Din and their allies from the New Israel Fund frightens the prime minister and his cabinet, and is stopping them from promoting building projects and authorizing tenders in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria."
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=230960
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Eyal identifies members of far left organizations who lobby against construction in Judea and Samaria as individuals who increase the housing problem.
But here we come full circle:
"The student sitting beside him on the grass, the one who volunteers for Peace Now..."
Students of the far left are involved in the demonstrations. Their protests against the government because of housing shortages are disingenuous, and indeed do have a larger purpose. From their perspective, how desirable it would be to cause the fall of this prime minister.
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© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
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