Who Participates in Encompassing Protests and Why Does It Matter? Israel and Spain in 2011

In Spain and Israel in the spring and summer of 2011, multiple demonstrations each mobilized hundreds of thousands of participants in the framework of Occupy-type protests. The Spanish Indignados (15M) and Israel’s social justice movement  were instances of an unusual variety of protest, labeled “encompassing” because it combines massive mobilizations with high levels of public support. Such encompassingness does not necessarily imply society-wide solidarity, but may instead be based on what are in effect multiple parallel protests in which some social sectors are under-represented or even altogether absent. This paper reports analyses of national sample surveys carried out in both countries, showing the effects of political cleavages and other social divisions on the passive and active engagement of individuals in these instances of encompassing protest. For Israel only, these conventional sources are supplemented by data collected via mobile phone signals, which make it possible to paint a reliable portrait of the social, cultural and political characteristics of demonstrators.