Why so little interest in the social protests in Israel?

I have been struck by the relatively limited focus in the UK on the social protests going on in Israel. Despite the size of the protest and its widespread appeal in Israel, where it is dominating the political and media agenda, it has gained little coverage in the UK media. [I write this not knowing what coverage will be in this week’s Jewish press.] And where there has been coverage it is often focused on the ‘novelty’ of it or to ask the question whether it represents an Israeli version of the ‘Arab Spring’ or what it means for the peace process – rather than recognising the deep seated social issues. One example of this was BBC’s Today Programme’s piece yesterday.

The reasons behind this lack of interest are undoubtedly many (UK having its own issues, not being about the peace process).

Whilst not wanting to dwell on these, it is a shame. It takes away from a focus on understanding the underlying causes and mplications of the protests and what they mean for the cohesion and prosperity of Israel.

Israel celebrated its acceptance as a new member of the OECD last year. Whilst this is a testament to Israel’s economic growth over the past decade, poverty in Israel remains a challenge. Likewise despite Israel’s relatively sheltered experience of the global financial crisis and unemployment rates, economic disparities remain acute.

Two resonant facts from recent research by the ADVA Centre – an independent social research institute

– The middle class in Israel used to be one-third of households. It’s now down to one-quarter: since 1988, the size of the middle income stratum decreased from 33% of households to 26.6%, and its share of the total income decreased from 27.9% to 20.5%. The middle stratum includes all the households whose income is between 75% and 125% of the median household income.

– Between 2000 and 2009, the poverty rate for in Israel grew to over 20% of all families, from 17.6% to 20.5%. Among Jewish families, it grew from 14.3% to 15.2%; among Arab families, it grew from 42.9% to 53.5%.

For more information on social and economic rights in Israel see from ACRI.

[NIF supports both ADVA and ACRI]

The basic picture that emerges, to quote Dr Swirski from ADVA is that “Israel is a classic case of a country whose macro-economic indicators are good but most of whose households are not invited to the end-of-year celebration”.

For further reading on the protests and reactions to them, I would recommend some of the following:

• The tent protest in numbers
• Jerusalem Post article on tent protest leaders response to government’s new housing law
• Photojournalism of last Saturday’s demonstrations
• ACRI article on human rights dimensions
• And finally a remix of Netanyahu’s comments on protests

There was also an opinion piece in Haaretz by Amos Oz yesterday – if there is a link I will update the post.