Social leaders to shake up Israel ballot
2013-01-03 21:04
Tel Aviv - They are young and they are driven. They got
half a million Israelis out on the streets demanding social justice. Now they
want their votes.
The leaders of a grassroots social protest movement that
swept Israel in 2011 have shot to the top of a rejuvenated Labour Party that
polls say will at least double its power in a 22 January general election that
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud is forecast to win.
"The next stage is to continue what started in the
streets, to bring that to the ballot... so that we can translate it into
achievements in budgets, laws and a change of policy," said 32-year-old
Itzik Shmuli, who as head of the student union was one of the most prominent
leaders of the protest movement.
It began with a handful of youngsters who pitched tents
along Tel Aviv's luxurious Rothschild Avenue to protest against high housing
costs. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated weekly across
the country.
Inspired by the Arab Spring that swept the region, the
protesters, chanting "the people demand social justice", dominated
headlines in Israel in the summer of 2011, and posed a new challenge to the
government.
Political parties soon saw potential vote magnets in the
movement's leaders, who were often portrayed in the media as idealists with
just the right mix of innocence and savvy to promote a message of hope and
change.
Shmuli quit the student union this year to win the number
11 spot on Labour's list of parliamentary candidates, running a distant second
to Likud in the upcoming election.
Israel has a relatively low unemployment rate of 6.7% and
a growing economy, but business cartels and wage disparities have kept many
from feeling the benefit.
In parliament, Shmuli and his allies hope to push
affordable housing, reform the education, welfare and health systems and to
narrow the gap between rich and poor in Israel, which the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said is among the highest in
developed countries.
In response to the protest, Netanyahu, a free market
champion and fiscal conservative, vowed to revamp the economy and lower living
costs. Some of the government's steps have eased the pain for the middle and
lower classes.
But other measures are moving slowly or have had no major
effect. With rising food and fuel prices, few feel significant change in the
cost of living since the protest.
"It means that we were mistaken when, as a young
generation, we thought we could avoid sitting in the places where we make the
most important decisions," said Stav Shaffir, 27, another of the
movement's leaders.
Shaffir is now eighth on Labour's list. Polls show that
like Shmuli, she will be a member of Israel's next parliament, with her party
winning about 16 to 20 of the 120 Knesset seats.
Under the tanks
At the protest's peak, Shmuli addressed about half-a-million
people at one of the biggest rallies ever held in Israel. He spoke to about
"The New Israelis", who will fight for a better future and social
equality.
But that was in September 2011. The question now is
whether the "New Israelis" who cheered for Shmuli will turn up to
vote for him.
The summer of 2011 marked one of the only times that
social-economic issues consistently topped the agenda in a country whose
population of 7.8 million is usually preoccupied with matters of war and peace.
Yariv Ben-Eliezer, a media expert at the
Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a college near Tel Aviv, says those issues
have once more taken a back seat.
In November, Israel carried out an eight-day offensive in
Gaza with the declared aim of ending Palestinian rocket fire into its
territory. The same month the Palestinians relaunched their statehood bid at
the United Nations and won great support.
"Before the [Gaza] operation, Labour was rising in
the polls and Likud was sliding. There was a feeling that the social protest
should be moved into politics. But the main issue has gone back to being
defence," Ben-Eliezer said.
Shmuli disagrees. Called up to the Gaza border for
reserve duty during the offensive, he took shelter with fellow soldiers under
their tank when rockets from Gaza hailed down.
"We will always be there for our country - whenever
it needs us, but the big question is, when we are out of our uniforms, will the
state be there for us?" Shmuli said.
Tamar Hermann at The Israel Democracy Institute, a
Jerusalem think tank, said a Netanyahu election win would not spell defeat for
the social protest movement.
Making politics sexy
Israel's election had been set for late 2013 but the
government failed to agree on a state budget, which it said would require harsh
austerity steps.
Netanyahu called an early vote in what commentators said
was an attempt by the prime minister and partners in his governing coalition to
avoid the risk of going to the polls after imposing unpopular cuts.
Labour has focused its campaign almost entirely on social
and economic issues, and its projected gains in parliament are largely
attributed to the protest movement.
If Netanyahu chooses to include Labour in his next
government, some of the movement's demands will undoubtedly be part of that
deal, said Yossi Yonah, a Labour candidate who has advised social protest
leaders.
Labour chief Shelly Yachimovich, an advocate of a welfare
state, has not ruled out serving in a Netanyahu administration. But the option
seems remote given their opposing economic views.
Looking ahead to likely budget cuts after the election,
Yonah predicted such steps could revive and bolster the protest movement, if it
combines civil action on the streets with a combative parliamentary opposition
to Netanyahu.
