Solutions to discontent must not lead to bankruptcy, Netanyahu says

Aug 14, 2011, 13:18 GMT

Jerusalem - Israel must find 'concrete solutions' to the wave of socio-economic discontent currently sweeping the country, but not at the risk of bankrupting the economy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

The premier told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that 'we intend to arrive at concrete solutions, not generalizations, but rather concrete solutions to concrete problems of reducing the cost of living and the closing of gaps in the State of Israel.'

He warned, however, that 'we want to find solutions that are economically sound. For if we end up bankrupt or face economic collapse, a reality in which some of Europe's leading economies find themselves in today, we will solve neither the economic problems nor the social ones.'

According to a communique issued after the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu told the ministers that he had instructed Professor Manuel Trajtenberg, the head of a 22-member committee looking into the socio-economic discontent, to submit concrete solutions during September, 'as quickly as possible - but not too quickly.'

The socio-economic protests began in mid-July, when activists pitched tents in Tel Aviv's plush Rothschild Boulevard, to protest the spiraling cost of housing. Tent encampments have since spring up all over the country, the protests have widened to include dissatisfaction at the general high cost of living, and support for the activists crosses political party lines.

An estimated 70,000 people demonstrated across Israel Saturday night. For the first time since the protests began, no rally was held in Tel Aviv, Israel's cultural and financial capital and its most expensive city, as organizers wanted to show the socio-economic problems were affecting people throughout Israel.

The largest of the rallies took place in Haifa, Israel's third- largest city, where around 20,000 people marched chanting that 'we want social justice.'

Rallies were also held in Beersheba, in the south, in Eilat, Israel's Red Sea port on the Gulf of Aqaba, and in other cities and towns.

On August 6, some 300,000 people took to the streets, mainly in Tel Aviv but in other cities as well, in the largest socio-economic demonstration in Israel's history.