Eleven people were arrested Sunday evening during a rally against the Tel-Aviv Municipality’s decision to dismantle a protest encampment in the Hatikva neighborhood, where some 40 homeless people have been camping since the summer. 300 people gathered outside the Tel Aviv Municipality building after police forces evicted the inhabitants of a tent city in Hatikva Park earlier in the day. The protesters chanted “The people demand public housing” and “No evacuation without a solution.”
Eviction of Hatikva protest camp, Tel Aviv, January 15 (Photo: Activestills)
Police and Border Patrolmen cleared out the Hatikva neighborhood tent city on Sunday morning, several months after the encampment was set up in what residents said was a protest demanding housing for disadvantaged and homeless residents of the campsite. During the eviction, police arrested four people “for violating restraining orders barring them from the encampment”. They included Stav Shafir, one of the leading members of the social protest movement, who was arrested at a protest outside the Hatikvah encampment the week before. By late morning municipality barricades encircled the grassy expanse where the tent city was located since the summer and dozens of birds picked through the rubbish atop the patch of mud left behind by the encampment.
Following the eviction, hundreds activists staged a protest outside the Tel Aviv Municipality building. Earlier this month, approximately 200 protesters clashed with police during a protest against the municipality’s attempt dismantle the tent city. One of the protesters, who along with his wife and four children, has made the tent city his home for the past several months, said that the protest was against “the inflexibility of the municipality – this is a lot of rage here.” He also said he did not believe the protest would become violent. Another tent city resident says the protesters have no intention of giving up and would “fight the eviction until the end.”
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Activists arrested during a protest at south Tel Avivs hatikva neighborhood
