Social movements in Israel in the 1980s

From a generation to another, if we don't read we would think that we invented everything. Although we have Internet and other fancy communication tools our hunger for reading or having enough information for proper conclusions is at the same low level.

When I watched the protests in Israel extensively covered in the media of all colors and languages I wanted to find out more about how everything started. Or if it is a model of action to rely upon. And I found some of the answers in a book - as usual - fully dedicated to the urban social movements in Israel.

In the year 2011, people were asking the state to give them the chance to have a decent housing and low costs of living. A justified demand, given the outrageous sometimes prices you must pay for rents, the food, schooling, mostly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. But, of course, on the other hand, unless you don't want living in a tent until the next elections - if some political parties used the opportunity to advertise themselves is normal, but don't take us for naives - you should realize that such issues can't be solved from a week to another.

In the 1980s, in Jerusalem, the protests were rooted in ethnic and social disparities (pp.10-11), deepened after the 1967 unification of the city. Youngsters of Mizrahi and Sephardi background reunited in movements as the Black Panters, Dai, Shahak or Tsalash asking the state to solve their problems. I think their demands were more realistic than the demands of the current protesters. At the time, the social structures weren't yet set and the mobility continued to be high. Nowadays, it's becoming more difficult to challenge the order already set. But not impossible, of course, on the long term.

Now, the underpriviledged were mostly students and youngsters at the beginning of their professional life. In the 1980s, there were the olim all over the world, but mostly from the Middle East, struggling against the predominantly Askenazim establishment, some of them with certified criminal record. Decades after, they were followed by the strong waves of olim from the Soviet Union and the Ethiopians. Thinking about those waves, I can't stop smiling when thinking about the new olim: moving to Israel because they want to, with a good economic status (among others, affording to buy a house for 2 million euro) and making aliyah because they want to, not because they are forced to. And this is very good.

In the 1980s, at the end of the protest period some of the participants decided to enter politics. Maybe some of the current protesters (I know they were evacuated from their tents - a way of protest used also in the 1980s) will join political parties too. Otherwise, living on the street could be fancy, but not with significant results.

I am curious what will be next and what's the next turn of the social struggle in Israel.