For more than three months now, Israelis have taken to the streets to protest. It started with demonstrations outside the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Balfour Street in Jerusalem but quickly expanded into large protests in Tel Aviv, and many, many more localities all around the country, at intersections, on overpasses and also near Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea.
While it started out as a protest against the corruption of the Israeli government, and in particular against Netanyahu himself, who is currently standing trial facing very serious charges (bribery, breach of trust and fraud) but refuses adamantly to remove himself from office, the utter failure of his government in the handling of the Corona crisis has quickly become an additional reason for people to leave their houses and make their opinion heard.
It is obvious that these people, (and while it is hard to estimate their numbers, there are hundreds of thousands of them) are fed up with Netanyahu and want him gone.
The remarkable thing about the protests in Israel, is not the fact that people are sick and tired of their leadership, but that they have been going on for as long as they have.
What makes people really come out to raise their voice, week after week? Even the lock-down that was imposed in Israel has not been able to halt the demonstrations and people will now gather at intersections close to their homes and raise their black and pink flags and their signs demanding Netanyahu resigns. It was estimated that yesterday, there were protests at more than 1,100 places, with over two hundred thousand people participating.
Sociologists and political scientists have done exhaustive research on what will make a protest have their desired effects (i.e., acceptance of the protesters demands) but opinions vary sharply and apparently one must take into account such facts as if the protests take place in a democracy of a dictatorship, if the protest is geared towards reaching benefits for specific groups or segments in the population or of a more general nature, if the demonstrators demand a change in policy or the ouster of political leaders and many more, sometimes unexpected factors.
When looking at history, protests have sometimes been successful but more often the determination of people wanes and the protests fade out. In the U.S., the protests against the Vietnam war in the 60’s where prolonged and sometimes very intensive (with the killings by Ohio National guard of four students at Kent State University a sad all time low), but the American Government did change their policies towards war and in the end pulled its troops out of Vietnam. Did the protest help bring this change about? If nothing else, the demanded action was taken and the war ended, for the Americans at least.
A much less convincing example is the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, which gained prominence in 2011, with world-wide actions demanding social justice. A year later, there was little left of the organization, and their demands were never considered seriously by anyone (any policymaker that is).
Closer to home, intensive protests for “Social Justice” (inspired by Occupy Wall Street?) were held in Israel in the summer of 2011, with demonstrators camped out on Rothschild Blvd in Tel Aviv demanding a change in diverse social issues, such as the increasing cost of living, the cost of housing and social injustice in general. The protests spread rapidly across Israel and the government was forced to make promises and set up a committee to investigate the grievances by the protesters. (as is usually done with any problem Israeli governments face). No tangible results or actions came out of the promises or the committee and the protest faded away, with the most blatant result being that one of the protest leaders, Itzik Shmueli, is now a Knesset member and minister of Welfare(!) in the current Israeli government.
The current wave of protests in Israel did not (yet) lead to the demanded changes either, but several things may be learned from them already. A Harvard study on the effectivity of protests, concludes, among other things, that size does matter. A larger crowd, or a larger number of people taking part in demonstrations, even at separate locations, does make an impression on policy makers and will, at some point, have an effect on their behavior. But much more than on policy makers, large crowds also make an impression on the person who stayed home. It gets people Politically Activated.
And this phenomenon is very easily discerned in Israel today. The protests today attract people that only six months ago would never have thought of taking to the streets. People of all ages, of all walks of life, and with a variety of wishes and demands, that in the end culminate in one demand only. Netanyahu must go.
Unfortunately, Netanyahu is both stubborn and self-righteous to a level that is unprecedented and it is hard to believe that he will come to conclusions by himself. But his political base is diminishing. Even as his most fanatical cronies in government and the Knesset lash out to anyone and everything, voters are starting to see that the protesters are right. Netanyahu needs to go. And if he does not come to that insight by himself, politicians of various backgrounds will gather the courage to open their mouths and force him out one way or the other.
The road ahead is still long which is a serious danger for the protest movement. And this shows a second important conclusion that already may be reached from the protests. It needs to be organized, its PR managed effectively, and its political affiliations limited to a minimum. People need to feel that they are part of a larger event and that can only be achieved when they are shown again and again, that they are not alone in this but that “everybody” is out there.
But………. It should be remembered and taken into account, that in particular with a singular far-reaching demand like having a Prime Minister removed, a successful protest may have unforeseen consequences. Who will come next? Demonstrations may need to continue way beyond the day that Netanyahu clears out. But that is bringing politics into an ideological demand.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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