Inspectors at the park
Photo: Yaron Brenner
Inspectors close down 'Marijuana Day'
Municipal inspectors pull plug on International Marijuana Day events in Tel Aviv after organizers failed to obtain permit to play music during celebration
People across the world, including Israel, marked on Saturday the International Marijuana Day. Special events were held in honor of the controversial plant in Jerusalem, Eilat and Tel Aviv, where the celebrations did not quite go as planned.
About an hour after the Tel Aviv event was opened in Hayarkon Park, municipal inspectors arrived at the place and asked that the music be turned off, as planners of the celebrations failed to obtain the appropriate permit to play music. Consequently, the several dozen people that were in the park to party were forced to leave the place.
'Disappointed with producers' (Photo: Yaron Brenner)
"It's very disappointing that the organizers didn't obtain the proper permits," Alex Katznelson, 18, who came to Tel Aviv all the way from the southern town of Arad said. "The Marijuana Day events in the last few years have been very successful, and we expected that this time too there will be music, nice people smoking water-pipes, booze, and of course policemen and reporters. We knew they will close the party down, but we didn't think it would happen so fast," he added.
Eran Vered, who organized the event in previous years, lashed out at the people behind Saturday's failed celebration: "What happened here today is a disgrace. I produced this event in the last eight years and it was never like this before. The organizers this year are like 'toy anarchists,' and that is why they refused to get the permits."
One of the Day's planners, who refused to be identified, said that she attempted to obtain an authorization for the event, "but the municipality wouldn't give it to us, because this is serious business: You need a business license, as well as firefighters and Magen David Adom to be at the place. Nothing was organized beforehand."
