July 17, 2011- Housing Sleep-in, Boycott Law

A Daily Analysis

The news from Israel in the last few days has been concentrated in two areas. The first, economic, and the second, legal/political.

On the economic side, a small city of tents has been set up in Tel Aviv to protest the high cost of rental in the city. Demonstrators are correct in pointing out the rising cost of rental in Tel Aviv, which seem to have doubled in the past few years. As some one who has been looking to rent in Tel Aviv (long distance, at the moment), I certainly share the pain of these demonstrators, and understand this problem.

Unfortunately for those who want to live in Tel Aviv, there is no solution. Since at this time, prices for apartments in Tel Aviv are not out of touch with apartment prices in leading cities worldwide. Apartment prices in Tel Aviv seem to be slightly more than half the price of apartments in any of the desirable neighborhoods of Manhattan. Of course, Tel Aviv does not have the subway system that New York has; a system that would allow someone to live in Holon or Rishon Letzion to live as if they lived in Queens and Brooklyn. The Tel Aviv subway system has been under construction, in fits and starts, since the mid 1970s.

Furthermore, Tel Avivs housing cost problems (which are tied to all of Israels housing problems,) where prices have risen to the levels of western countries. However, in Israel, the Middle class has not benifited from the country's economic rise. The take-home pay of the overwhelming majority of Israelis is considerably lower than those living in New York or similar cities. Understanding Israels economy has been a puzzle, even for those who do it for a living. This is something I plan to explore over the course of the next few years.

The other issue discussed at length has been the passing of the a new law that outlaws the support for any boycott against Israel. While I do not share the view of some, that the passing of this law is the end of Israeli democracy, the continued attempts of the political right to try to make the the actions of the political left illegal are troubling. The words of Reuven Rivlin, Speaker of the Israeli K'nesset, and whose political views are heavily to the right wrote on Friday:

"I stand ashamed and mortified before my mentor, Jabotinsky, for not having succeeded in protecting the individual, whom he likened to a monarch, against the parliamentary fists of the majority. It might have been hoped that in an era in which Jabotinskys followers are scattered across the whole political spectrum, from the coalition to the opposition, things would be different. But in the absence of an ideological backbone, it appears that even the deep commitment to democracy and individual freedoms of those who call themselves his successors is conditional. It is the State of Israel that is compelled to pay the price of political interests that supersede national interests."

Finally, the Israeli Education Ministry announced today that in five years, no textbook would be approved that is not available electronically, and for which the cost of the electronic version was not at least 60% less than its print equivalent.