How Israel’s Tent Cities Influenced Occupy Wall Street

[tabatha]

Inspired by the Arab Spring this past summer, Israelis from a rainbow of different ethnicities, political leanings and backgrounds banded together to form a protest movement unlike any in recent history. Their tent cities influenced the Occupy Movement in the world.

As the Arab spring spawned protests by the disenchanted across the Middle East, Israelis took to the streets and boulevards across Israel to express their disenchantment with social issues and the high cost of living. They did this in a very simple yet effective fashion. Many left their homes (in some cases they didn’t have homes) to occupy major thoroughfares across Israel by pitching tents and camping out. Social Media, the mainstream media and word of mouth were the primary promoters of the movement that inspired Israelis to take action. The visions of “Occupy Wall Street” were still yet only beginning to be born and the Israeli movement was seen as being its impetus.

One protest leads to another. The Arab spring gave birth to the Israeli protests which began with a fed-up public complaining about the rising cost of housing and living. Fittingly, it began on Rothschild Blvd, a shaded boulevard in central Tel Aviv and named after a fabulously wealthy family that helped found the modern state of Israel, originally grounded in social welfare.

Within just a few weeks, 40 tent cities sprang up across the country in highly visible fashion. Just two weeks later, there were over 100 with marchers nearing half a million.

http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/11/tent-cities-occupy-movement/

[applegrove]

1. Yes OWS was inspired by and truly reached around the globe.