Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the Cabinet meeting today by referring to the tent protesters, saying that the government is dealing with the real estate bubble issue. Meanwhile, tent protests are expanding to cities all over Israel - from Kiryat Shmona to Beersheva.
"There are not enough apartments in Israel because there are two main bureaucracies that are afflicting the real estate market and are preventing the planning and marketing of apartments," said Netanyahu. "We are currently tackling these issues."
The tent protest began this past weekend in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where protesters set up tents to protest the high prices of apartments, which rose more than 60% in the past four years. Today, the Student Union joined the protest, and tents will be set up in other central areas in Israel. At the same time, the protest is also gaining momentum on Facebook and Twitter.
MK Miri Regev (Likud) arrived at the tent compound on Rothschild Blvd. in Tel Aviv over the weekend, and she was hounded out. The young protesters cursed her saying that she has not done enough to solve the housing shortage and that she is now trying to ride the wave of protest for media exposure. This morning in an interview on “IDF Radio" (Galei Zahal), Regev called the protesters, "extreme leftists".
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 17, 2011
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