Despite extensive advance publicity and meticulous planning, just over 200 Israelis showed up for a demonstration on the evening of Dec. 22 opposite the government compound in Tel Aviv. Many of these protesters wore bright yellow vests in an effort to gain momentum from the successful social protests in France. But this failed in Israel, at least in terms of the protests’ strength. Though some of the price hikes were overturned, this has more to do with the near-hysterical response of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who is operating under the shadow of an impending election sometime in 2019.
The Israeli protests were instigated by an announcement from the Electric Corporation Dec. 11 that rates would go up by 6-7%. In addition, about 10 major food producers announced over the past few months that their prices would go up. The rising costs in products by Tnuva, Tara and Gad Dairies, which dominate the dairy products and cheese markets, as well as by Osem, Unilever and Coca Cola, which dominate most other branches of the food industry, also resulted from the anticipated hike in the cost of electricity. This was further compounded by a seven-year freeze in food prices in Israel, in response to the economic and social protests in the summer of 2011, which drew their inspiration from similar waves of protests in Europe and the United States. Back then, the protests forced the government to appoint a committee of experts and even to adopt some of its recommendations. But the main impact of “the cottage cheese protest” was on sales by food manufacturers and on consumption in general, which declined noticeably. Since then, almost no significant price rises of food products in Israel were recorded. At the same time, the cost of electricity for consumers dropped by 10%, thanks in part to the transition from coal to natural gas. Compared to other countries in the West, electricity rates in Israel remained low, or at least relatively so.
