To the Party...or is it a Protest?

What to wear…what to wear.  The events email I got this week talked about all the bands that would be playing concerts tonight in support of the protest.  They are protesting the cost of living in Tel Aviv.  Actually, this is like ten small protests all coming together and the binding thread is the cost of living. 


It all started with a young orthodox guy who created a facebook page to protest cottage cheese (there is only 1 or 2 producers and it is really expensive!  Like $4 or $5 for a 10oz container).  Then a 26 year old girl who mad at her landlord did the same thing for rent prices.  
 
 This snowballed into a “tent city” on the most popular street in the city, then a 50,000 protest two weeks ago, 150,000 last week, and 300,000 this weekend.  Before you start to get a wave of anxious fear, the papers are saying the protests are more like street parties than protests.

So…the dangly earrings?  These seem a bit too party-ish for a protest.  Hmm…how about a casual dressed up look that looks effortless (but really takes me 45 minutes).  A casual cotton T-shirt with a touch of sparkle, hair pulled back, small earrings, and the obligatory across the shoulder crunchy protest purse (packed with an id, enough money for a cab home, a camera and two beers – there is no open container law here).

When we walk out of the house there are 6 tour buses parked on our corner.  There is a band playing from the second story balcony.  I’d stay to listen but it is in Hebrew and I want to see the main event.  The general crowd is moving towards the city center like a swarm of bees towards honey.  Most of them look like they are about to go grocery shopping, no signs, no hippy clothes…just normal people. 
 As we get close we can feel the excitement rising with the beating of drums.  We squeeze past the groups of young adults chatting with their friends (one of them brought a sign), past the strollers, the dad with his 6 year old daughter on his shoulder, past the families who just came to watch.  There are as many people marching as there are watching.

The march is the exciting part.  It is moving slowly – like an unorganized parade that got really scrunched up.  Each group has a banner or poster and some even have people in costumes, group T-shirts, or instruments.  We can’t really read the signs, most of them are in Hebrew.  The chants are in Hebrew as well, also very unorganized, but supposedly they are saying something like “the people demand social justice.”  We see one sign in Arabic and one in English.  We see a guy on stilts, some orthodox guys, guys with drums, a Che Guevara shirts…mostly just normal people aged 20-50. 

Looking around we can see that the walls lining the sidewalks have become benches for supporters with cameras and every other rooftop and window facing the street is packed.  “Jen, Paul.  How are you guys?”  Who would have thought, a crowd of 300,000 and we run into someone we know.  He is actually one of the two big wine experts in the country and – lucky for us! – he is carrying wine! J  The march is winding down so we head towards this great pizza place downtown and share a pizza that tasted like it had been dipped in truffle!  Of course, paired perfectly with a great bottle of wine.  We probably wouldn’t have gotten a table if we hadn’t been with the wine guy as the place was packed with hungry “protesters” (catch the irony here – the protest is on the cost of living in Tel Aviv, and they are going straight from the protest to the pizza place to enjoy $24 pizza).

It was fun.  And if the government doesn’t do something I am sure we’ll have the opportunity go again next weekend.