Israel Stocks Fall - Social Justice Rallies by 300,000 [Update]

Social Justice rally draws over 300,000 protesters

(Jerusalem Post) – The nationwide social justice movement protest reached new heights on Saturday night, as an estimated 300,000 people took part in demonstrations across the country.

Tel Aviv was again the center of the protests, with more than 200,000 people taking part in a rally along the length of Rehov Kaplan in the center of the city, in one of the largest demonstrations in the history of the state.

For the third week in a row, protesters blocked the intersection of Rehov Kaplan and Ibn Gvirol after most of the social justice protesters had dispersed. Several hundred protesters remained in the intersection, singing Jewish songs and the movement’s now-token chant: “The people demand social justice.”

Some forty minutes after the bulk of the remaining protesters left the intersection, police declared the protest illegal and announced over loudspeakers that demonstrators had ten minutes to clear the streets. The police order was met with refusals to disperse, accompanied by chants of “The police are with us, they don’t have a choice,” and “Mr. Officer, you too are worth more.”

After the Arab Spring, Israel Gets Its Own Protest Movement

(The Atlantic) Aug. 3, 2011 – When 25-year-old Daphne Leef pitched a tent on historic Rothschild Boulevard in the heart of Tel Aviv two weeks ago, along with a few hundred friends from a Facebook group she formed, she did much more than start the protest against housing prices in Tel Aviv which she intended. She touched on a strong undercurrent in Israeli society that has been brewing for years–the feeling, mainly among the secular majority, that the social compact upon which the Jewish state was founded had been broken.

Israel is a land that for 100 years has been preoccupied with issues of life and death. To build a state here demanded sacrifice from everyone and it was understood that everyone had to share in the many burdens.

But over the last 20 years, rapid market liberalization and privatization, coupled with the high birth rate of ultra-Orthodox citizens (who mostly do not pay taxes and serve in the army) have created a situation where the middle class, mainly secular majority of the country feels that it is carrying a very large, and very unfair load on behalf of everyone else. It is a situation wholly antithetical to the original Israeli ethos and it has struck a nerve.

“There is a small cult of families now that control all the money in the country and they have their friends in the government who help them,” said Harel Maidani, 29, who came from two hours away to set up camp on Rothschild Blvd. on the second day of the protest and has not left since. “We are slaves to them now and that is not why we built this state.”

NY Times: Protests Grow in Israel, With 250,000 Marching

TASE plunges after S&P cuts US credit rating

The opening on the TASE was delayed after the Tel Aviv 25 fell 6% in pre-market trading.

TEL AVIV, Israel (Globes) Aug. 7, 2011 – There was enormous tension on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this morning, the first market to open worldwide after S&P announced that it was downgrading the US credit rating from AAA to AA+. The TASE was expected to fall sharply not only because of the downgrading but also because of losses on global markets on Friday, when the Israeli market was closed.

Opening of trading was delayed until 10.45 am with the Tel Aviv 25 Index down 6% in pre-market trading. Shortly after trading began, the Tel Aviv 25 Index was down 4.8% at 1099.67 points. Last week the TASE had its worst week since 2008 with the Tel Aviv 25 Index losing 6.3%. This morning’s falls were the Israeli markets eighth straight day of losses.

Excellence Nessuah chief economist Shlomo Maoz said, “There will be sharp falls but the tsunami is behind us. Anybody who sells shares in panic will be sorry.”

Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz reportedly consulted with economic experts last night and decided to close the stock exchange should the falls reach panic proportions.

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange opens with 6% losses as global crisis felt in Israel