TA: Student caravan towed, elderly protest living costs

University student union rep says structure on Rothschild Blvd. was meant to protest PM's ministerial team established to examine social ills.

By BEN HARTMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Student union caravan_311 (photo credit: Guy Ziv)
Student union caravan_311
(photo credit: Guy Ziv)
The Tel Aviv municipality on Monday morning removed a trailer house that had been set up by members of the Tel Aviv University student union and the National Union of Israeli Students late Sunday night, the first permanent structure of its sort set up at the tent city in central Tel Aviv.
The trailer was set up by the students next to their protest headquarters near the corner of Rothschild and Sheinkin streets. Shortly after its construction was completed, the municipality affixed an eviction notice to the structure, giving it 48 hours before it would be forcibly removed. Only a few hours later though, city workers lifted the trailer onto a flatbed truck and drove it away from the city.
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Gilad Erditi from the University of Tel Aviv student union said that the move was meant to protest Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's establishment of a multiple cabinet member team to examine the social issues addressed by the movement.
 
Erditi said the move showed that "the protest is far from over. We plan to stay in tents for a long time and, because of this, we decided to upgrade our infrastructure. "
 
Deputy head of the National Student Union, Ofri Raviv, said Monday that the trailer was set up in order to send the message to Netanyahu that "the struggle is not over. We are protesting the committee that he set up in order to kill time; by setting up this trailer in order to show that we are not going anywhere."
Also Monday, hundreds of pensioners and activists gathered at the intersection in front of the Azrieli Towers Monday to protest against the rising cost of living. Protesters caused a backup of traffic in intersection, one of the busiest in Tel Aviv.
The elderly protesters, throwing their support behind the tent protests that originated in Tel Aviv, were seen holding signs that said "The elderly also demand social justice."
Social-justice protesters have been rallying for more than three weeks in various marches, tent cities, and events around the country against the high cost of living and lack of affordable housing.
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