Social movements in an era of post-democracy: how the Israeli J14 tent protests of 2011 challenged neoliberal hegemony through the production of place

Abstract

Inspired by the Arab Spring, massive social movements have erupted since 2011 in many places around the world. Despite their differences, these movements have had at least two remarkable common features: all of them struggled for ‘real democracy’ and occupied prominent urban public spaces to erect temporary tent encampments. By focusing on the case study of the 2011 Israeli tent protests, this paper argues that the production of such places of resistance works as a crucial, albeit ambivalent, strategy to confront hegemonic power relations. On the basis of the literature on the spatialities of contentious politics, the article demonstrates that the establishment of more than 70 tent camps in public spaces all across Israel was of vital importance not only to challenging the post-democratic political system but also to overcoming an internal crisis of representation within the Israeli protest movement. However, the case of the Israeli J14 tent protests also underlines that while the production of place can be a powerful starting point for social movements, it is not a durable alternative to multi-scalar, networked forms of organisation, which are also able to confront state authorities in the long term.

Résumé

Inspirés du Printemps arabe, les grands mouvements sociaux ont éclaté depuis 2011 dans de nombreux endroits dans le monde. Malgré leurs différences, ces mouvements ont tous eu au moins deux caractéristiques communes remarquables: tous luttaient pour une «démocratie réelle» et occupaient des espaces publics célèbres pour installer leur campement de tentes temporaires. En se concentrant sur le cas d’étude de la révolte des tentes israéliennes de 2011, cet article soutient que la production de tels espaces de résistance fonctionne comme une stratégie cruciale, bien qu’ambivalente, pour confronter les rapports de force hégémoniques. A partir de documentation sur les spatialités de politiques controversées, l’article démontre que l’établissement de plus de soixante-dix campements dans des espaces publics à travers Israël était d’une importance vitale non seulement pour défier le système politique post démocratique mais aussi pour surmonter une crise interne de la représentation au sein du mouvement contestataire israélien. Toutefois, le cas de la révolte des tentes israéliennes du «J14» met en évidence que bien que la production d’espace puisse être un puissant point de départ pour les mouvements sociaux, elle ne constitue pas une alternative durable par rapport aux organisations aux formes multi-scalaires et en réseaux, qui ont aussi la capacité de confronter les autorités de l’Etat à long terme.

Resumen

Inspirados por la Primavera Árabe, los movimientos sociales masivos han entrado en erupción desde 2011 en muchos lugares de todo el mundo. A pesar de sus diferencias, estos movimientos han tenido al menos dos características comunes notables: todos ellos lucharon por la ‘democracia real’ y ocuparon importantes espacios públicos urbanos para erigir tiendas de campaña temporales. Al centrarse en el estudio de caso de las protestas en carpa israelíes de 2011, este documento sostiene que la producción de tales lugares de resistencia funciona como una estrategia fundamental, aunque ambivalente, para hacer frente a las relaciones de poder hegemónicas. Sobre la base de la literatura sobre las espacialidades de política de protesta, el artículo demuestra que el establecimiento de más de setenta tiendas de campaña en espacios públicos por todo Israel fue de vital importancia no sólo para desafiar al sistema político post-democrático, sino también para superar una crisis interna de la representación dentro del movimiento de protesta israelí. Sin embargo, el caso de las protestas en tiendas de campaña J14 israelíes también subraya que, si bien la producción de lugar puede ser un poderoso punto de partida para los movimientos sociales, no es una alternativa duradera para las formas de organización en red y a múltiple escala, las cuales también son capaces de enfrentar a las autoridades estatales a largo plazo.

Keywords:

• Social movements
• place
• post-democratic
• Israel
• Arab Spring
• tent protests

Mots clés:

• mouvements sociaux
• lieu
• post-démocratique
• Israël
• Printemps arabe
• révolte des tentes

Palabras clave:

• movimientos sociales
• lugar
• post-democrático
• Israel
• Primavera Árabe
• protestas en tiendas de campaña

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Veit Bachmann, Daniel Mullis, Uri Gordon and the two other anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1. In collective Israeli memory, tent encampments embody the historical experiences and competing narratives of many different social groups. For Ashkenazi Israelis, the tent is associated with the pioneer kibbutz settlements of the 1920s; for older Mizrahi, it is associated with the Ma’abarot mass absorption camps of the early 1950s; and for Palestinians, it is associated with the post-Nakba refugee camp (Allweil, 2013). Beyond that, protest camping is, in the Israeli context, also a familiar tactic mostly used by marginalised groups to resist multiple forms of discrimination. Apart from frequently occurring small protest camps limited to the government quarter in Jerusalem and aimed at specific state policies, larger tent protests also emerged, for instance, in the early 1990s, when Mizrahi activists established 64 tent cities nationwide with almost 2000 participants to protest the severe housing crisis (Hasson, 1993, p. 39). The shared experience of many explains, at least in part, how rapidly the 2011 protests spread into this format.

2. After the eviction of the Rothschild camp, the J14 movement was able to temporarily use a vacant building on Rothschild Boulevard as a collective place for meetings, debates, lectures, and film screenings. This was possible only with the help of a private investor, who was struggling with the city authorities over a building permit. This place, renamed Beit Ha’am (House of the People), prolonged the spirit of the tent camps for more than a year.

3. This inner circle was itself a product of the media industry looking for faces of protesters to be made into temporary celebrities. Due to its close connections to the media, this circle became a parallel decision-making body, often contradicting the grassroots democratic decisions made in the tent assemblies. Therefore, its protagonists alienated not only the subaltern public but also many middle-class activists.

4. Another protest camp emerged in the wealthy north of Tel Aviv, along the Nordau Boulevard. Its ethno-class composition, however, was very similar to that of the Rothschild camp.

5. According to Grinberg (2013, p. 503), new and old ethno-national issues have constantly been introduced or discovered by the Netanyahu government to disempower the social justice movement, including the manipulation of the Iranian nuclear threat, a wave of anti-Palestinian legislation, and a discourse focusing on the ‘dangerous’ influx of refugees from Sudan and Eritrea.