Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT Section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 18.08.2025
The collapse of the middle class (the petty bourgeoisie) explains the apparently hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets in protest and demanding an end to the war to free the Israeli hostages.
A new report by the Histadrut’s Forum of the Self-Employed reveals a severe economic crisis among the self-employed in Israel. Thirty-two percent of them have difficulty paying their housing and rent. A large number of them asked for help from the state but did not receive it, and some received a deferral of mortgage payments with interest charges. This is another sign of another crisis that is expected soon. Candidly reports a 23% increase in requests for assistance even before the holidays, and emphasizes that most of the increase comes from the self-employed who are unable to survive.
So, how will the local economy move? We are talking about many businesses that are slowly closing, and many self-employed people who will not make it through the month. Their families will reach a situation they did not know. We are witnessing the collapse of the middle class within two years and the damage to the beating heart of the local economy. If at the beginning of the war there were waves of government and private aid to the self-employed sector due to the recruitment of the self-employed (reservists), today many Israelis are submitting requests for help and donations. Disaster competes with disaster, and recruitment campaigns exacerbate the situation.
It’s no longer just about numbers. These are significant numbers (about 200,000) of Israeli citizens who have endured for many years in a country where the economy is shaky, the security situation is precarious, and opening a business is a challenging matter in itself. Additional surveys conducted two and three months ago indicated a 42% decline in the business activity of those who had survived the difficulties and continued to operate their businesses during the war. These people are now on the brink of an abyss, and they could sweep the entire local economy in their wake.
These people have a clear interest in ending the war, but Netanyahu and his group of bandits call the protesters collaborators of Hamas. If it were true, then Netanyahu and his ministers would have been afraid and would have agreed to a cessation of the war and the exchange of prisoners.