Danny Tavory regularly shows up at Tel Aviv's biggest marketplace just before it closes for the night, when vendors sell fruit, vegetables and other products at large discounts or give them away.

Mr Tavory, 21, a university mathematics student, says he can barely afford to buy food as most of his monthly income of 2,500 shekels (Dh2,670) from giving private lessons and counselling troubled youth goes toward his rent.

This week, he and hundreds of other young Israelis living in Tel Aviv erected dozens of tents on the Rothschild Boulevard, one of the city's most luxurious avenues, joining a growing protest against the high housing prices in Israel's seaside cultural and business centre.

The demonstration has spread to other cities in the north and south, where tent cities have sprouted in the past week.

The move is being billed as one of the country's biggest consumer protests in recent years, staged in a city known more for the peace rallies organised by its predominantly centrist and left-wing population.

The housing protest comes after last month's countrywide consumer boycott against the rising cost of the Israeli breakfast staple, cottage cheese, and other dairy products.

The consumer rebellions in Israel coincide with neighbouring Arab countries' pro-democracy uprisings and appear to be partly inspired by them.

Shlomo Buhbut, the head of the union of local Israeli authorities, told a parliamentary committee hearing about the protests on Monday: "We need to turn Israel into Tahrir Square."

Mr Buhbut was referring to the Cairo site that served as the focal point of the Egyptian revolution in January and February.
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In a country usually dominated by the debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some analysts say the protest is pressuring the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to step up economic reforms, because it has had little progress to show with peace talks.

Some commentators have drawn a connection between the housing protest and the conflict with the Palestinians.

They say the tent protest is also a reminder of the billions of shekels Israel has spent for decades on settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, at the expense of investing in areas such as housing inside its recognised borders.

"When we talk about the housing crisis … it's important to remember the choice that Israel has made," Ben Caspit, a political commentator for the mass-selling Maariv newspaper, wrote this week.

"The choice was between shifting the national resources into the country and shifting them into disputable territories beyond the Green Line."

Israel has severely cut its overall housing investments, reducing its share to 1.9 per cent of the state's total budget in 2009, from 4.5 per cent a decade earlier.

Experts say the government has not planned for the construction of enough affordable apartments, leading to a chronic shortage of housing.

Analysts say the combination of poor government planning and little available space for building has made the rise of home prices in Israel, despite its location in one of the world's most volatile regions, among the fastest in the world in recent years.

Housing prices have risen on average more than 30 per cent since 2007, significantly faster than the increase in salaries.

Property agents say the average monthly rent for a three-room flat in Tel Aviv, a coveted place to live, with its beaches, balmy weather and nightlife, today costs about 6,500 shekels, up from 4,000 shekels five years ago.

In Tel Aviv's tent city, visitors are greeted by a large black and orange banner that reads: "Housing is a right and not a privilege."

More than 150 tents are lined up on the grassy areas that run across the avenue, surrounded by signs such as one leaning sideways on a tree that reads: "Appetite for revolution."

Demonstrators have set up a makeshift kitchen, a dish-washing area, a corner for handing out free second-hand clothes, a wireless internet connection and a reading area equipped with a sofa, donated books and newspapers.

With no running water, showers or bathrooms, they use the facilities at nearby cafes or supermarkets.

The rally has drawn politicians to show their support, prominent singers to stage free evening performances and economists to hold lectures on Israel's housing policy for demonstrators and visitors.

Mr Tavory, resting shirtless on a mat and leafing through a mathematics textbook, said he was prepared to stay long enough to ignite change.

"Maybe the next elections would bring more housing-minded parties to the governing coalition," he said.

Tefler, 28, a musician who is looking for a new flat, said she was inspired by the protest. "I've become fed up with young Israelis being sleepy when it comes to consumer issues," she said. "Finally there is an awakening and they are speaking out."