Boycot cellcom...

i guess u have to admit being their client, however, there must be a way to get away from that obnoxious company.

The cheapy cell phone company is using the separation wall as part of a campaign

Time to find another company and now that i can keep my old number, maybe it is a very GOOD time to do so.

There are no illegal children

A deep feeling of shame overtook me, at seeing the kids from Darfour, who may be arrested, imprisoned and deported any day now, during the demonstration against the newly formed deportation police and the terrible policies adopted by the current government. Small children, some of them were born here and know no other country.

They are fluent in Hebrew and attend Israeli schools. Their schoold friends joined them in the demo, their innocent faces serious, while upholding placards stating "we want Mozes back in our class" and "Don't deport our friends".

Perhaps 100 - 12o Israelis and foreigners stood together at a busy crossing in downtown Tel Aviv protesting the actions undertaken by the newly formed private police force that has one aim: deport foreigners from Israel. Even if they may be killed in their countries of origin.

In order to make their sick task easier, another law was passed making it a crime to assist "illegal" foreigners in any way. In fact an NGO volunteer or employee who e.g. brings food to a shelter, teaches Hebrew or voluntarily represents a refugee in the migration court can be send to jail for 20 years!

Ofcourse many of us will take the risk, but it will make aiding more dangerous and difficult. And less available. The foreigne workers in Israel and their families are weakened statusless people.

The state has now instituted a special police force with one aim "getting rid of them, but hook or by crook". After all, the worst they can do to us is jail us. But deportation is an entirely different thing.

I feel a deep shame, anger and frustration at what is happening. But i also feel a deep fear for Israeli society, there is something so evil and immoral about arresting and deporting a small child. A society that is able to undetake such an act is seriously and deeply flawed.

Demonstration against the new migration police activities and the crazy "aid to illegal aliens act"

Today, saturday the 4th at 20.00 at the corner of Ben Zion and King George street in Tel Aviv, there will be a demonstration against thepolicy, the cruel treatment and the activities of the new migration police and the Israeli government.

The new policy doesn't only entail incredible cruelty against one of Israel's weakest groups: refugees and labor migrants, victims of modernday slavery and trafficking but also those who help them!

According to the new law any Israeli citizen who helps a "illegal alien" in any way, faces up to 20 years in prison.

Thus the volunteers of the various NGO's who bring clothes and food to the shelters, provide Hebrew lessons, free legal and medical aid etc. have been defined as criminals by law, facing worse prison terms then e.g. rapists, thieves, bribers, you name it.

Hirschenzon, the previous minister of finance, who robbed several millions from the healthfund and non profit org he managed, was sent to prison for less than 10 years this week.

Yet those who volunteer in NGO's that extending assistance to "illegal aliens", may face 20 years for that activity.

This country is VERY VERY sick. It is OUR responsibility to change that. To heal. Please come to the demo today

Israel's old new hate police: privatization of a dangerous force

Yesterday they carried out their first action, by rounding up "illegal aliens" in the area of the central bus station in Tel Aviv. They made use of a private bus company, Alant, to transport the arrestees to a private prison. I'm amazed at how easy it is to privatize "services" dealing with very basic rights, such as freedom. Not just amazaed, also scared. Private goons carrying out private justice.

According to the Ministry of the interior there are about 250.000 foreigners without a permit residing in Israel. Some are victims of trafficking, others refugees from Darfour or Eritrea, yet others laborourers from China or the Filipines who ran away from the slave like conditions under which they were made to live and work for much less than the minimum wage (which already is very low).

A few years ago the migration police was established and then abolished in order to be replaced by a private police force operated by the ministry of the interior as of yesterday. The private police force are not bound by the rules that bind the regular police.

Yesterday they carried out their first action and their spokesperson "promised" its continuation. They do not care if a refugee might be in danger. They have also stated they will not respect the unofficial agreements between NGO's school and the migration police which held that no arrests would be made around the school areas, the free clinic and other NGO's assisting the labour migrants, refugees and victims of modern slavery. In fact the new police force stated they would actively search those areas, because that is where those without rights receive their services.

Their spokesperson has also informed the public they will arrest and deport children. A very large part of the children were born in Israel. go to Israeli schools and speak predominantly Hebrew. They have never been to their parents' country (or countries, when parents come from different areas of the world, there are quite a few "mixed" children) and are not familiar with their parents culture(s).

The arrest and deportation of children stand in direct opposition of various international agreements the country has signed. Yesterday parents with children were warned to leave the country within one month, if not, they will face arrest and deportation. Arresting babies and toddlers, little schoolchildren? This place is seriously sick.

A new witchhunt is on its way targetting Israel's weakest groups with modern and forceful means.

However, one needs to look also at the larger picture. The new police force is private. It is used against the weakest of weak population who cannot risk protesting. But at the same time, society gets used to the idea of an "efficient private police". I expect it will only be a matter if time until this force will be used against others, Israeli citizens as well.

So long democracy.....

shelter? what shelter?

The IDF home front command is involved in a massive civil defence exercise , in the course of which all citizens were supposed to run for shelter,yesterday at 11.00 when the sirens started blaring.
In Jaffa all went on as usual, nobody, except perhaps kids in the schools, ran anywhere, as there is no where to run to in the large majority of the neighbourhoods. None of the old houses have shelters and public shelters are, few, far away and locked.

In the staircase of me house, suposedle a "safer spot" if there is no better alternative (there isn't, not a room that has no windows, toand the roof is all certified carcinogenic asbestos) but that's where the gaz contained, 2 on each of the three floors. The continuous faint gaz smell suggests there is a tiny leak somewhere, but no technician has been able to deal with it. The staircase is open to the air, so i'm not too worried about explosions in regular days.

But that's the place where i live.
The old houses in Jaffa have no shelters. There is no where to go in case of a real event.

The main thing being ofcourse, that the home command can put a big V on "exercise well carried out" as if preparing for the next investigative committee which will surely follow the coming war because of the civillian catastrophe. Everything is about PR in this country. And very litte about true problem solving.

The murderer from Bi'lin

The people from Bil'in have been struggling against the wall for a long period of time now. Although the Israeli high court of justice judged in their favour, the construction continues.

The people from Bil'in in cooperation with the internationals and Israeli human rights activists hold weekly peaceful demonstrations to protest the construction opf the wall which is cutting off the vilage from its agricultural lands.
The IDF has shot at the (peaceful) protesters again and again and again, usually using so-called "non lethal" weapons such as rubber bullets (metal balls covered with a thin layer of rubber) and extreme distance gaz cannisters.
The only problem: when you shoot these from a short distance at someone's torso (as is the habit of the "most moral army" in the world, the IDF) they become very very lethal.
Several people have been very badly wounded and some have been killed, Bassam among them.

If you recognise the guy in the image, please send the info to palcrimes (at) yahoo.com so he can be prosecuted for murder.

Gaza in the heart of Jaffa

Horses, border police, loads of other police and the usual police camera crew were there when some hundred people from Jaffa gathered today in the Gazan'z Park to protest the continued closure of the Gaza strip as well as have a memorial for Gaza's over 400 murdered children.
Rappers "System Ali" (from Jaffa, rap in Arabic, Hebrew and Russian) set the tone.
Placards with the names and ages of some of the children were attached to the trees as were rather macabre shrouded dolls.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time, Israel intended to be a democratic state. And more or less met the commonly accepted western criteria for being recognized as such.

Free elections and the right to be a candidate and to vote for all adults, free press/media, the freedom to organize and to demonstrate, an independent judicial system, although the religious courts (Rabbinical, Shariya and church run) who influence a fairly large part of our personal lives, never were democratic nor pretended to be so and one of course needs to question the laws against family unification for Israelis marrying spouses form the occupied territories and the problematic behaviour of quite a few employees of the ministry of the interior. Israel more or less met most demands for being called a democracy. No longer so.

And yes, democracies have their limits. After all, history has shown an ultra extremist party can be democratically elected and then cancel all democratic rights. As such, it makes sense for a democracy to have certain limits in order to protect its very core value: democracy, freedom if you like. And i like freedom very much.

Israel has tried, in the past, to be a democracy of sorts. And i do not say this lightly. However, the basic criteria for a democratic state are no longer met.

The "election council" (Vaadat habhirot, ועדת הבחירות) yesterday decided to prevent to 2 parties from participating in the coming elections: Balad and Ra'am Tal. The decision was made with a large majority vote, which incluided support from such parties as the labour party and Kadima.
It should be mentioned that some of the top functionaries in the labour party apparently did not agree with labour chair person Eitan Kabel's decision to vote in favour of the cancellation.
But a very ugly truth is out, clearly and openly. Israel is not a democracy. Palestinian and Jewish Israelis are prevented from making progress towards true democracy by means of parties that believe in the concept of " a state for all its citizens מדינת כל אזרחיה ". These parties are not allowed to participate in the upcoming elections which are supposed to take place on february the 10th, about 4 weeks from now.

There is an inherent contradiction in the concept of a "democratic Jewish State". To put it simply: in a democratic state all are equal. It does not matter whether one is Jewish, Muslim or Christian or of no religion or belongs to whatever ethnic group. And if one ethnic group becomes larger than another, it does not matter. Ethnicity does not play a role. All are equal, and if people from "other" ethnic groups wish to migrate to the country and if they meet the regular criteria an other country has in regards to providing visas (no criminal record, the ability to provide for oneself, not suffering from very serious and dangerous diseases which might harm public health or by marriage etc) they can do so.
There has been extensive and shameless talk in Israel about "the demographic danger". What they mean by that is "what of there will be inside Israel more Arabs than Jews?". Quite obviously in such a situation, there no longer would be a Jewish majority state. And this is what scares many people in Israel. And i can understand the feeling of fear, it is based on a long history of violent antii-semitism. Yet i cannot justify the consequences of this fear.
IF Israel wants to be a democracy, it needs to consider its ethnic multi-cultural character as well as its history of colonialism. It needs to ask questions about zionism and the naqba. It needs to wonder about immigration rights and the civil status of minority groups. Questions need to be asked about inter-religious marriage. Solutions need to be found.

Yesterday's vote indicates quite clearly that Israel is no willing to do so. Israel is not willing to be a true democracy and to face the serious questions and demands posed by a growing Palestinian minority that has become politicised and acutely aware of its rights and the continuing discrimination it faces.

I expect yesterday's shameless decision to be undone by the Israeli supreme court, and both parties will probably participate in the elections and have their representatives in the next kneset. Yet never has it been more clear: there is a contradiction between a sole ethnic based state and democracy.
And if we are unwilling to face that contradiction, we will -quickly- become a non-democratic state. Yesterday a big step was made into that direction.

Israel is such a lovely and true democracy....

Since last night several Jaffa activists (all of them Palestinians) have been taken into the Salameh Police Station where they were interrogated by the internal security services, the Shabak, who behaved in an insulting and threatening way (in some cases using the good-bad guy technique) .

Amongst those interrogated was Omar Siksik, member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipal council and Sami AbouShade as well as Rolla and Shirin Agbariye and many others,
Rolla and Shirin have been released into three days of house arrest. Sami has been released and
Omar was released this morning but then requested to go for more interrogation, this time by the police. As of now he is still in the police station.
So much for Israeli "democracy". Arrest and intimidation are efficient ways of stopping legitimate protest.
Oh but i forget, in Israel; true protest is not legitimate, or only in a very limited way.

There is more information elsewhere

Hate Graffiti in Jaffa

As we are nearing the municipal elections, hateful graffiti against Jaffa's Palestinian population has started sprouting up at different locations all around.
From "Kahana was right" through "Death to the Arabs" and "F* Islam" to "Arabs Should not be allowed to Vote" sprayed on walls of homes and public buildings in Ajami, Jabaliya ("Givat Aliyah", as it is called by some) and central Jaffa.
I feel like buying a can of white paint and wiping it out and hope Jaffa's Palestinian population will come to vote for change. A complaint has been filed at the police.
As this happens in the same week Barack Obama is elected as the next president of the USA, it seems all the more symbolic.

For those Hebrew challenged: the graffiti reads "Kahana was Right" .

Preparing the party for whom?

Chinese construction workers are frantically running around, while Russian speaking carpenters are assembling the hardwood deck and fences surrounding the building. A huge tent has been erected and electricians prepare light fixtures outside. A gorilla-sized guy from a private security company sits idle on a small chair, overlooking the sea. Small children play in the little public sports play ground that has been prepared just outside the Peres Center for Peace.
The kids are the only locals in the immediate area. No one from Jaffa seems to be employed here.

I sneak inside the compound to have a look at things. My eyes catch sight of a pig-ugly statue of an anorectic looking grotesquely long-necked woman releasing iron doves upward into the sky. It looks straight out of the fifties and is heavy on symbolism. The sort of statue used in shopping malls; not offensive to anyone, sort of "pretty" and "pleasing" but not carrying any weight. With the money spent here, they could have done better. But then, the whole building is such a colonialist mis-fit. And very symbolic of what is happening in Jaffa, in the country, in the Middle East.
Inside , the building is more or less empty, unfinished. Natural light, but very stuffy. There are no windows to be seen (except for the top floor, facing the sea), there is a lot of glass, but not one window which can be opened to let in fresh air. Weird, because close to the beach there is almost always a nice wind, even on hot days. Just open the windows on the shadow side of the building to let in the breeze, and you will not need air-conditioning. Not so in this building, they'll either be cooking or waste much electricity on keeping cool, i guess.

The inauguration ceremony is a few days away and the building is far from ready. The beach surrounding it has been cleaned, the road towards the beach, which has been coming apart over the last several years, has been repaired as well and newly asphalted. The area surrounding the huge pipe passing underneath the center and ending on Ajami beach (the rain overflow from Pardes Dake) has been cleaned, amazing what they're wiling to do in order to impress the foreign guests.
That area of Jaffa hasn't been so clean for ages.
Now and then kids from the neighborhood pass by to have a lok.

I have finally deteced the entrance of the building. It faces the sea and when arriving from the street you need to go all around in order to find it. "Most welcoming".

The building could be used as a shelter for many of Jaffa's homeless and poor families. That would be a great use for it. Then maybe it would turn into something that could become part of the community. One could also operate an art center for kids in it. A community center. Although not inviting nor pleasant, i can think of a few uses for it. Obviously more entrances should be made into it. To let the neighbors in. Ad windows, for a fresh breeze.

Brother, can you spare me a dime?

So Lehrman Bro. fell and Merril Lynch did too. AIG is in major trouble, "but here all is well". Or so the varous commentors on radio tell me. Here? Nah, we're fine.
Sure, ofcourse, and there is "nothing to worry about". Wild globalization. Israel's privatised pension funds are heavily invested in the US property and mortgage market. Much money has been invested in the over-valued Eastern European property market as well. And when they start to loose, you, me and the rest of us loose.

But there is more and it is all bad.
Over the last so many years Israel has privatised its civil services more and more, putting the responsibility in the hands of so many well-meaning NGO's , while providing some of them with partial financial support, on the expectation the Jewish communities abroad will somehow donate the rest.
"Shnor" has been retermed "fundraising and then "resource development", but it is still the same: wealthier Jews in the US and Europe donate to Israeli NGO's taking care of education, health, housing, welfare, the elderly, food security etc.. The state is less and less responsible and we all accept it.
The 2nd Lebanon war showed how dangerous that is, when the poor, elderly and weak were left hungry and thirsty in the shelters and even in their homes because they couldn't make it down the stairs to the bombshelters in time, in their wheelchairs and with their rollators. After all, the electricity had been cut off and the elevator didn't work and the nurses and social workers had run off to the south and the center, out of reach of the missiles.
"The system" did not function and it was shocking.
But the privatization continued and still does.
Yet those same NGO's have more trouble raising money, as the devalued dollar made their donations of less value and at the same time America's Jewish community donated less.
And now they will give even less and the dollar will go down even more.
NGO's in Israel will stop providing services or provide less services to less people and perhaps of a lesser quality.
Some will stop alltogether.
The poor will be paying first as always. But all of us are loosing now. Loosing our pensions, becoming much poorer. All of us. The rich will, perhaps, give up a skiing holiday or buy a cheaper car.
The rest of us? Brother (or sister) can you spare me a dime? Yes capitalism is really "wonderful".

Municipal Generosity

Yediot Ahronot carries an interesting article today about affordable housing in Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv Jaffa municipality will subsidize 2000 appartments for young couples in Tel Aviv, or so the title says.

However, when you read the article, one starts to wonder. The suggested solutions relate to young families with a monthly income of 9000 NIS. Now what?

The average income in Israel is about 7.300 NIS.

The minimum income stands at about 4.000 NIS.

Families on welfare need to survive on as little as 2.000 NIS a month (and sometimes receive rent subsidy for another 500 NIS).

To my understanding it is the poorest who need housing subsidy the most.

Yet this "revolutionary" project doesn't take them into account at all. Supposedly the housing ministry assists the very poor, therefore the municipality wnats to assist those who need it but do not receive aid. But in reality that assumption is a farce, the poor are becoming homeless quickly as they cannot afford the rent and the queue for public housing takes years and years. The tiny rent subsidy they receive -if they're lucky enough to navigate the burocracy involved- covers the rent of a doghouse at most, not a 1 room flat in Tel Aviv, for a family with 3 children...

The municipal (remember it's municipal election year?) "generosity" relates to wealthier groups of of young professionals perhaps.

The only democ.... oops

Israel likes to call itself "the only true democracy in the Middle East" and in comparison to some of our neighbours Israeli media indeed are relatively free and elections relatively democratic. But everything is relative.
Today Norman Finkelstein was refused entry to Israel (in order to travel onwards to the occupied territories) and deported.
So much for our democracy. I don't necessarily agree with everything Norman Finkelstein has to say. And perhaps i would use different wordings.
But a true democracy should not be scared of criticism. A true democracy should welcome political discourse.

But then i guess Israel isn't really a true democracy.

Chinese school construction and in Israel?

Reading about the horror of collapsing school buildings in China i cannot but wonder; and what about the construction quality of the schools in Jaffa? In all of the country?
Israel is in an earthquake zone, close to the African Syrian fault line. Serious earthquakes have hit the country in the past and the question is not IF there will be a serious earthquake in Israel, but WHEN.

The next question should be and what about the construction level and safety of our public buildings? Our schools, hospitals, theatres, prisons etc. And what about our private homes? Who is responsible?

I recall reading scary reports presented by the Technion and other official agencies, about the high damage percentage we would suffer when the "big one" will hit.
I recall these reports spoke about a large percentage of homes and public buildings that might not withstand the event and crumble.

Was anything done? How do you know the quality of the building you live in? Work in, visit? When you live in public housing or a privately rented flat (like yours truly), how can you know how safe it is? Is it safe? And who is responsible for it? Some bribe taking politician? The inventor of "palkal" floors (of Versailles' wedding hall fame)? You and me? The municipality?

These things always and only happen "elsewhere", don't they?

Mugging the poor

Yesterday, three young guys from Jaffa robbed a Chinese migrant labourer in the area of Jaffa's Gaza street.
They took all his money.
Chinese migrant labourers usually pay very large amounts of money to manpower agencies (aka slave traffickers) when coming to the country to work. Often they have mortgage their and the families' homes to make the payment and as a result they have to work for months and sometimes years almost without pay, in order to return the loan. During the weekends, when the "official" construction sites lay idle, they tend to do their own thing, painting homes and doing small repair jobs to at least have some money in their pockets. They often carry around all their savings, as banks for a number of reasons are not really an option for them.
Thus, they become easy targets for muggers and robbers. As the Chinese labourers usually have work visas, they can go to the police, which is what happened in this case. Three arrests have been made. I just hope the victim will get his hard earned money back.

Trying to tell the truth about the "liberation" of Jaffa

Some 20 - 30 demonstrators and at least 40-50 police men, including special forces (Yasam) and border police.
In spite of the law, none of those last two groups wore name tags on their uniforms.

At the etzel museum a small audience listens to a sound & light heroism performance,
We are kept at "a safe" distance, but using old pots and sticks as well as small flutes we raise a lot of noise.
Banners tell the story of the naqbe in Jaffa, of the acts of terror carried out by Etzel against civilians. Sixty years ago, the naqbe.

Reuven Abergil tells the story of how that happened, while the Brits and the Hagana conveniently looked in the other direction. They controlled the road blocks on the way to Jaffa and the Etzel people dressed to look like local Arabs, passed through with their weapons and explosives.
Bombs hidden inside a watermelon cart and a truck exploded in Jaffa's market. Children and women were murdered. The aim was to create terror and make the population want to flee away.

The police tried to force us to another location, close to the Turkish railway station, where no one passes by and no one can see nor hear us. So much for democracy. So much for our right to express our views and be heard.
We disagree to move to that far away spot. In reaction they bring iron fences and "cage us in".
More police arrive on the scene.

The atmosphere becomes uneasy, then violent.

Four (?) people are arrested, some are lightly wounded, one journalist's press card appears to have been taken away by a police man who refuses to identify himself. Some of the police become very violent.

The police move us even further away in a concentrated and violent effort. It appears the noise we make bothers some of the "etzel heroes".
Their public doesn't really want to know the true story.
But the true story can be well learned from the etzel themselves. Prior to "pc" language in the fifties and sixties, they published books about their "heroism" against Jaffa's civilian population as well as the acts of looting Jaffa's homes and stores.

The police actively assist in telling the Etzel narrative.
They do all to keep us quiet.

But we won't, we won't be quiet.


And by the way, i found a camera in the area of the demo. I think it belonged to participants, please contact me.

Disease does not discriminate

Two months ago my friend Mariam, a young Palestinian women from the territories, needed urgent medical care.

She does not have a visa to say in Israel and no medical insurance. So she went to the free clinic run by "Doctors for Human Rights" in the area of the central bus station in Tel Aviv.
She received excellent medical care by the very friendly staff.
Over the years i have referred and accompanied more than a few friends in need of medical care to this wonderful clinic.
The clinic is of major importance to some of the most weakened communities in the country: migrant labourers, visa-less and insurance-less people, victims of trafficking in human beings and of course, refugees, many of them , over a hundred per day.

The clinic was closed about 2 weeks ago.
The relatively small clinic, run by a volunteer medical staff can no longer cope with the ever increasing flow of refugees in need of urgent medical care. They do not have the ability to treat so many people per day; there are not enough professional staff, equipment, rooms, medicine etc.
so instead volunteers accompany the ill refugees to the emergency wards of the hospitals in the area.
The health of so many people is not a problem to be taken care of by an NGO, responsibility should be taken by the government.

Yet the ministry of health refused to take the responsibility on itself, even in such cases as are demanded by international conventions signed by the the state of Israel.

The number of people lacking medical care in the country is growing.
This is NOT a matter of money, but of human rights. Diseases can attack anyone, they do not discriminate between skin-colour, race, ethnic group or religion. The ministry of health quite obviously does.
And that scares me. And angers me.

"I Am Rachel Corrie" at the Arab Hebrew Theatre

The play "I am Rachel Corrie", based on Rachel's diary and letters she sent home and to friends during the period she was in the Gaza strip until she was killed there, was performed by the "Al Midan Theatre" at the Arab Hebrew Theatre in Jaffa tonight.
Rachel, an American citizen, was a peace activist serving as a human shield in order to save people's lives in the Gaza strip during the second intifade.

Rachel's parents were present at the première which took place in the framework of the Women's Festival opened today at the theatre.

In addition, "the Wild West" and "Death Song" will be presented in the framework of the festival.

Back to the ma'aberot, one more Nimby in Jaffa

The Tel Aviv municipality has started to construct a tent camp in Jaffa, a refugee camp basically, for the many homeless refugees from Darfur and Eritrea currently staying in the over-crowded and dangerous shelters and the park in the area of Tel Aviv's central bus station.
Yes, it is about time the establishment takes responsibility for care for the many refugees who have come into the country from Egypt.
There is not only a moral obligation to do so, but a legal one as well: the state of Israel signed the various relevant international agreements relating to the rights of refugees and it is about time those rights were fully recognized: visa, health, welfare, adequate housing, employment , education for the children as well as language studies for the adults and perhaps vocational training for those in need of it etc. etc. and of course financial assistance until the refugees find employment and will be able to fend for themselves.

There is no doubt NGO's can no longer take that responsibility: the sheer numbers and depth of distress of the people coming in from the hell that Darfour and Eritrea have become, demand state intervention and responsibility in the form of a well-integrated absorption and assistance plan. The refugees are not a "short term problem" that will go away if you do not think about it. Such a plan should relate to the short, mid and long-term problems and solutions.

The state, instead of what was mentioned in some publications about providing every refugee with 2000 NIS to help him or her with housing and first expenses, is not actually doing anything.
The Tel Aviv municipality, faced with a major humanitarian and health crisis (last week a shelter caught fire and by sheer luck there were no major incidents nor wounded), decided to do something, which is great. To take some responsibility, excellent.
But why build a ma'abera (transit camp)? And if that is the only solution, why in the already weakened south of the city, in Jaffa?
Moreover, those responsible for it, will be the Jaffa welfare department (according to Ha'aretz), who already are over burdened and under staffed. Already their level of functioning is way below what i would call merely adequate.

One more NIMBY in Jaffa. It's unfair both to the refugees and the Jaffa population.

Why not construct the tent camp in north Tel Aviv? I can think of some excellent, large, green locations which already have the necessary basic infrastructure. More over, there are good bus-lines, excellent schools and health clinics in those areas, so why not?
But it is municipal election year and it's the guys in the north who vote for Huldai no? I guess that's why.

When thousands of new migrants from the USSR arrived some 15 years ago, caravan camps were established as a first line of housing solution. Rightfully, this solution was criticised and funny enough the majority of the people sent to those caravan camps were Ethiopian migrants. Now it's a tent camp, they are constructing. Back to the fifties.
Would skin colour have anything to do with it?