The situation on the ground is bubbling.
We say this above all on what stage it is time.
These are not words for the sake of words, but a description of the sad reality as it is reflected in the eyes of those who give aid to the needy.
The corona sharpened and exaggerated the class in Israel.
People who previously did not think they would be in any danger, have unfortunately joined the cycle of poverty.
The impact of the war in Europe on the global economic situation, inflation and rising prices, but above all these is the hardest blow, and perhaps the greatest danger to Israeli society: the housing crisis.
These are not just the young people who want to live near the entertainment centers in the big city.
These are no longer a difficult task and a goal that seems far away.
An apartment in Israel today seems like an impossible goal to achieve, not only in Tel Aviv, but almost everywhere in the country.
Think, for example, of a single mother who lived in a three-room apartment in Hadera, at a rent of about NIS 2,500 a month until a year ago.
Today, the same lady is already paying more than NIS 3,500 for her apartment.
Assuming that her salary has not changed in the past year, and if the additional price increases in energy, food and other prices are calculated in the hundreds of shekels a month, how will she be able to survive and meet all the expenses?
There is nothing to talk about buying an apartment at all.
Speaking of wages, at a time when it seems that instead of pressing hard on the cost of living, the gas pedal was actually released, discussions on raising the minimum wage awaited Knesset members, and ultimately the ordinary citizen sitting in the house waiting for news from his elected representatives in political battles between the coalition and the opposition. So important and weighty.
Where we will all win, and the minimum wage will be raised significantly and immediately, it is not yet clear the full picture if and when it will rise.
As you may recall, according to the plan, the salary itself will reach NIS 6,000 in just four years.
The headlines of the new editions, the front pages of the newspapers and the discourse on social networks regarding housing prices exist and are present.
Protest groups are starting to rise, and everyone understands that this situation simply can not continue.
I am convinced that the leadership knows this too.
It is no longer on the fringes, not underground and not something that can be hidden.
Today, the reality in Israel is that only those who are in the status of the upper class, or those who are lucky and have a respectable inheritance, can reach the desired roof or pay rent without disturbing worries.
In Israel, however, almost as always, even when all the red lights are on just before the disaster, nothing happens in practice.
We already know by heart all these omissions and needless to mention in these lines.
There is an impression that socially we are at an end point, and in a moment the pressure cooker will explode.
Unfortunately, as in many other cases - for example, a dangerous road where only when human life is cut short are the defects corrected - here only when an extreme and desperate act of a person who has lost hope happens (and I pray we do not get there), maybe then the earth will tremble.
All this could have been prevented a long time ago, and should be stopped immediately.
Housing prices are not a cut from heaven.
They are a criminal neglect of many years, which threatens the entire Israeli public today.
Everyone involved in the craft should clear a table of all other occupations and present clear and immediate solutions for housing care.
No slogans, no grandiose plans on paper, no designed presentations, and most importantly - no selling dreams today and abandoning the field tomorrow.
Otherwise, many will be ejected below the poverty line in the near future and the tents will not be on the streets just for the sake of protest, but will really serve as the roof for the citizens.
The tents this time will not only be a protest face on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv - they will be from north to south and at every point on the map.
The author is the director general of the Pethon Lev organization, which works to break the cycle of poverty in Israel
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