Protesters throughout Israel have set up tents in the street to decry the country’s sky-high housing costs, reminiscent of the massive cost-of-living demonstrations that swept the country in 2011. A protest camp was set up in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening, joining the encampments that have been set up in several locations across the country in recent days. Other encampments were located in Jerusalem, Haifa, Beersheba, Pardes Hanna, Holon and Rosh Ha’ayin. They said that a large demonstration is to take place at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on July 2.

The Tel Aviv camp was set up on Rothschild Boulevard, a street that has become a symbol of the high cost of living in the city and was the epicenter of the 2011 protests. The major social protest in 2011 started off with a small group of young men and women setting up an encampment on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard on July 14th. The movement gained national attention very quickly and spurred an entire summer of protests that culminated in a massive rally that saw nearly half a million Israelis taking to the streets throughout the country.

Bourgeois’ governments have been promising to lower ever-climbing housing prices for more than a decade. The sky-high costs have put home ownership out of the reach of many Israelis, weakening the working class. Housing prices were up 16% in January and February 2022 compared to the same period last year, marking a sharp 12-month climb, according to an April report by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

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