Protests over high house prices and rents spread across the country

Tent protest villages have sprung up across Israel over the past week to demand action on house prices and rents, attracting large numbers of young workers and students, huge media attention and the panic of politicians beginning to feel the heat of people power.

The centre of the nationwide protest is Rothschild Boulevard, a coveted and affluent avenue in Tel Aviv, whose central pedestrian pathway is now littered with hundreds of small pop-up tents, posters, battered furniture and people strumming guitars and debating into the night.

The protest movement has spread to cities and towns across the country, including Jerusalem and the desert city of Beer Sheva. The citizens of the tent villages, along with their many supporters, are expected to join a big rally on Saturday night that, according to Daphni Leif, who initiated the protest on Facebook, will “make the upper echelon shake”.

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