Tel Aviv Rooftop

There are now 2,000 (!) tents and various other structures pegged into the former grass along Rothschild Boulevard and (according to a police survey) a total of 3,383 around the country. At this stage of the "revolution", as a stroll  down Rothschild clearly revealed, the original "the rent is too damned high" protestors have been augmented , if not outnumbered, by the rest of am yisrael.  A partial list includes doctors, psychologists ('Bibi, ask Sarah, what a psychologist earns is chara [shit]' ), social workers, animal rights groups, environmental activists; Ethiopians, immigration seekers, divorced fathers  settler "hillop youth", old age pensioners,Communists, Kahanists and Reform Jews who want to separate religion and state. Each has its own compound  and conducts earnest seminars on the synthetic rush mats that cover the entire area. Some have fully-staffed information desks and cable TV while others are simple tent-and-megaphone jobs. I ...

Taken on Saturday night at the ever growing tent city on Sderot Rothschild and later at the march to the square outside Tel Aviv Museum. The organisers hoped for 5,000 people. 20,000 turned up. Mahapecha  (Revolution) says the sign above the shack and behind it, 'Rothschild corner Tahrir' It's hot ... Gathering by the square. At least in Tel Aviv, this is a revolution of nice middle class young people who have been squeezed too hard and aren't going to take it any more. Nor are the hard pressed doctors. The head of Israel's doctors' association has just embarked on a march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while fasting and vowing not to break his fast until the doctors' demands are met by the government. Today, small groups of protestors blocked traffic at busy intersections throughout the country. more revolutionary images here