Hillel hosts 'Occupy Tel Aviv' talk

On Thursday, Feb. 9, Professor Noah Efron of Bar-Ilan University in Israel gave a talk entitled "The Israeli Citizens Demand Social Justice" in the Cleveland State University Student Center. CSU's chapter of Hillel, the foundation for Jewish campus life, sponsored the discussion and lunch. Efron was invited to speak to the CSU community about Israel's version of Occupy Wall Street, known as Occupy Tel Aviv.

Efron began his lecture by describing growing up in the United States and feeling "desperate to be different." At the age of 21, Efron moved to Israel because the country seemed "open to redefinition" and a place where he could make a difference. He called the Israel of today a "gentler, more decent place" than it had been when he moved there decades ago. Efron admitted that many criticisms of Israel's actions hold some measure of validity, but that Israelis are happiest when they are helping others. As proof, Efron cited Israel's large number of non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, of which Israel has more per-capita than any other country.

"Nothing is so Israeli as withering pessimism," Efron said.

He added that Israelis today are upset over the income gap between rich and poor, which is the fifth largest among developed nations, and corruption in politics, he said. However, the issue that sparked the creation of Occupy Tel Aviv was the high price of housing in Israel's cities. The protest started in mid-July of 2011 when a college student, who had been evicted from her incredibly high-priced apartment, invited her Facebook friends to pitch tents and camp out on a Tel Aviv boulevard. By the end of the week, 100 tents had formed a make-shift city. After two weeks, 68 tent cities had sprung up all-over Israel, and 350,000 people had marched together protesting inequality.

The official slogan of Occupy Tel Aviv is, "The people demand social justice." During his talk, Efron asked the question, "Who are the people?" The people, he said, "encompassed the whole political spectrum," in contrast to Occupy Wall Street protestors who represent a small fraction of America's population.

Efron declared conversation the heart of the Occupy Tel Aviv movement and mentioned that professors, including himself, gave non-stop lectures discussing myriad reforms at these tent cities.

When winter came, Occupy Tel Aviv came to an end because the cold weather made camping outdoors difficult and dangerous. Efron feels that the movement will translate into tangible social change, but that it cannot be judged for success until at least a decade has passed.

As a sign of hope, he pointed to the focus on local social justice reform that former Occupy Tel Aviv protestors have adopted. He said that the protests have already encouraged young people to run for political office, generated legislative proposals and created small working groups and cooperatives.

When asked his reaction to the presentation, junior Mechanical Engineering major Ryan Wood responded, "This idea seems to have taken hold in the hearts of Israelis who are calling for social and political reform and is needed far more badly for Israelis than for us, it seems."