A quarter-million Israelis marched on Saturday for lower living costs in an escalating protest that has catapulted the economy onto the political agenda and put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu planned to name a cabinet-level team on Sunday to address demands by the demonstrators, who in under a month have swollen from a cluster of student tent-squatters into a diffuse, countrywide mobilization of Israel's burdened middle class.
Israel projects growth of 4.8 percent this year at a time of economic stagnation in many Western countries, and has relatively low unemployment of 5.7 percent. But business cartels and wage disparities have kept many citizens from feeling the benefit.
Police said at least 250,000 people took part in Saturday's march in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities, a greater turnout than at marches on the two previous weekends.
"The People Demand Social Justice" read one of the march banners, which mostly eschewed partisan anti-government messages while confronting Netanyahu's free-market doctrines.
Some held signs reading "People before profits," "Rent is not a luxury," and "Working class heroes." In Jerusalem, more than 30,000 protesters gathered outside Netanyahu's residence after streaming past some of the most expensive real estate in the city. Other protests took place in further flung cities in Israel's north and south, drawing about 10,000 people.
Demonstrations on such a scale in Israel — population 7.7 million — have usually been over issues of war and peace.
Ehud Rotem, a 26-year-old student and bartender who also lives in Jerusalem, sees a bleak future for people of his generation.
"It's hard to live in this country, we go to the army, work and pay high taxes and still don't earn enough" to make ends meet, he said.
The protests initially targeted soaring housing prices, but quickly morphed into a sweeping expression of rage against a wide array of economic issues, including the cost of food, gasoline, education and wages.
In a "Peace Index" poll conducted by two Israeli academics, around half of respondents said wage disparities — among the widest of OECD countries — should be the government's priority, while 18 percent cited the dearth of affordable housing.
Some 31 percent cited the stalled Middle East peace talks, Israel's international image, or the need to bolster the armed forces.
The demonstrations have upstaged Netanyahu's standoff with the Palestinians ahead of their bid to lobby for U.N. recognition of statehood next month. Protests also deflated his celebration of Israel's stability as citizen revolts rock surrounding Arab states across the Middle East and North Africa.
"There has been nothing like this for decades — all these people coming together, taking to the streets, demanding change. It's a revolution," said Baroch Oren, a 33-year-old protest leader.
The conservative coalition government has vowed to free up more state-owned land for development, build more low-rent housing and improve public transport. It also wants to lower dairy prices with more imports and boost medical staff numbers to address demands by striking doctors.
But the demands submitted by the National Union of Israeli Students go much further in calling for an expansion of free education and bigger government housing budgets.
"The prime minister believes strongly that these claims are valid, that we have artificially high prices that are there predominantly because of monopolistic practice and cartels," Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said as protesters were chanting their demands. "The government hopes to push through a series of reforms that will bring down the prices that Israeli consumers pay."
Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon, named by a Netanyahu spokesman as a likely member of the cabinet troubleshooting team, said a solution was required even if it "cost billions" at a time when Israel is watching the debt jitters of the United States and parts of Europe. Israel's debt burden is 75 percent of GDP, lower than that of most major Western economies.