The Million Person Rally...sort of

You have never truly cottage cheese until
 you have eaten Israeli cottage cheese

Since I've been in Israel, there has been a social protest going on. They started out as protests against a rise in the subsidized price of cottage cheese. I know that sounds absurd but you truly have not experienced cottage cheese until you have eaten Israeli cottage cheese. It is an essential part of a traditional Israeli breakfast. I refuse to eat cottage cheese in the US but I have bought it every time I have gone to Shufersal or the closer supermarket, Machsanei Lahav.

The protests started in earnest with a single tent on Rothchild Boulevard, one of the wealthiest streets in Tel Aviv. More and more people came until it was a tent city, alive at night with the sounds of drum circles and acoustic guitars. Different groups came together from all political parties to protest the high cost of living in Israel: students protested the lack of affordable housing, doctors protested their long hours and low wages, and some people protested just because that is what the cool kids were doing.

Protesting on the shoulders of my suit-mate.
 Photo credit: Darielle Shandler

That is where I come in. A month and a half into the protests they tent cities had spread to different cities throughout the country. They had held several rallies, the biggest in Israel's history, the new commentators and journalists were predicting that the protest was running out of steam. The leaders of the protests decided that they needed to rejuvenate their efforts. A million-person rally, they dreamed, by far the biggest in Israel's short existance. More than one out of every eight people in the country. There was no way I would miss it.

The night of the protest I went downtown to Kikar Hamedina, Tel Aviv's largest square, to check out the action. I went with five friends, but by the time I elbowed my way to the middle of the giant crowd I had lost all the others except for my friend Max. We felt like individual curds of cottage cheese stuffed into the container with the heat turned up to about 150 degrees. Luckily, there was no spoilage.

One of the heads of the protest, Daphne Leaf, spoke about the significance of the rally and why they should continue to be upset with the government. Then Hadag Nachash, a popular Israeli Hip-Hop group performed three songs, including the appropriate song, "Lo Frayerim," which talks about Israelis not wanting to be suckers for paying high taxes and going on mandatory military reserve duty.

This sign doesn't necessarily reflect my political
view because I have not solidified mine yet.
Whether or not it reflects your's, you
have to admit that it looks cool.

There were a lot of cool signs with clever slogans and striking designs, one of which I snagged from the side of the road after we left. It reads "The nation is mentally ill (sick in the head). Sometimes Advil isn't enough and you need to switch it's head." This of course, is a reference the the Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, and was sponsored by Kadima, the opposition to Netayahu's Likud Party.

On the way home we quietly chanted the slogan of the protest to ourselves: העם דורש צדק חברתי (the nation demands social justice).

The next day the media outlets reported that the rally totaled approximately 450,000 people across Israel. Not nearly the million protestors that were promised, but still the largest protest that ever existed in the country. More than fifteen percent of the population participated and I still didn't see anyone I knew. Maybe this country is bigger than I thought it was...