Last night, Israel held it's largest mass of rallies and protests to date: more than 450,000 people showed up all over the country (mostly in Tel Aviv) to protest the economy that has paralyzed much of the middle class, and the major problems of social inequality among different religious and ethnic groups in the country.
Today, these same people began taking down the tens of thousands of tents in the tent cities in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem--this part of the protest, they said, was over. The tents had been up since mid-July, when Daphne Leaf, a young adult who was struggling to afford rent, set-up camp on Sderot Rothschild. She sent out a facebook invitation for others to join her...and sure enough, within a few short weeks, tens, then hundreds, then thousands did.
Not everyone agrees that this is the time to end this part of the protests, but those taking down the tents say that the symbol has left it's impression, and now it's time to keep protesting on Saturday nights, keep meeting, keep rallying, and keep pushing for real change. It's not the end, but only the beginning of a long fight.
Two days ago, I spent about four hours talking to one of the young men I met at the Sderot tent city...and he said something that stuck with me, "No one looks back at history and sees that things are constantly changing. Every powerful state has eventually ended. This isn't bad, it's just the way things are."
It's true...even the Roman Empire fell. There's nothing to say that any politician, country, culture, religion, or group of people can hold onto their power forever. They just hold on until someone, or something, more powerful pushes them aside.
Many of the people I spoke with talked about America being the most powerful country in the world. I can't help but wonder how short our reign as 'most powerful' will really be. I'm fairly certain the Romans had more staying power than us...but I'll probably never know.
