South TA tent city protest ends in arrests

Police say 23 arrested in demonstration against scheduled removal of encampment in Hatikva Park.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Protesters block street in south Tel Aviv 311 (photo credit: Or Yizhar and Orly Barlev)
Protesters block street in south Tel Aviv 311
(photo credit: Or Yizhar and Orly Barlev)
A demonstration against plans to remove protest tents in south Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood ended in disturbances and arrests on Saturday night.
The evacuation was scheduled to take place on Sunday morning.
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Hundreds of people took part in a march that began at Gan Hatikva and proceeded toward Yigal Allon Street. Police said the gathering was illegal.
Protesters blocked traffic on Yigal Allon street and twenty three were arrested including Stav Shaffir, one of the leaders of the social justice movement.
Police said that protesters had blocked the intersection of Hagana and Yigal Allon streets. They later blocked Lod Street.
In a press release publicizing the protest, organizers said: “The Hatikva tent encampment has served as a home for the past six months for single mothers, families, parents, children and the elderly – homeless and the direct victims of the establishment’s unsympathetic and irresponsible policies.”
The statement slammed the government for evacuating the encampment without providing a plan for alternative housing for those living there.
“Today we will all come to support the residents of the encampment and say to the prime minister: ‘In the State of Israel, a person will not be tossed from street to street – no evacuation without housing solutions.’” The demonstration was attended by several of the organizers of Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard tent city, including Shaffir and Dafni Leef.