MK Itzik Shmuli, the ‘responsible adult’ of the 2011 housing protests, still lives in a housing project in the underprivileged suburb, where he says encountering Israel’s underclass keeps his passion for social issues alive.

With a salary of over NIS 38,000 a month, a Knesset member – especially a single one with no children – could probably afford to live almost anywhere he or she wants, but a year after his inauguration as a freshman legislator, MK Itzik Shmuli (Labor) is bringing his ideology to life in Lod.

Lod, the mixed Jewish-Arab city only a 17-minute train ride from Tel Aviv, has long had a bad reputation for underprivileged residents and a high crime rate.

That didn’t scare Shmuli away, though. Continue Reading