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'Won't leave their homes.' Lehavi
Photo: Ofer Amram

Deputy TA mayor: Yemenites are like Arabs

During meeting on plan to evacuate homes in Kerem HaTeimanim in favor of residential high-rises, Meital Lehavi says neighborhood residents very attached to their property, like Arabs,' but later explains, 'I'm a proud Iraqi who is familiar with Middle Eastern mentality'

The Tel Aviv Municipality's Planning and Construction Committee discussed on Wednesday the details of a new plan to evacuate homes in the Kerem HaTeimanim (Vineyard of the Yemenites) neighborhood in favor of residential high-rises.

 

Deputy Mayor Meital Lehavi, who is opposed to the plan, said, "From my experience, the Yemenites are like Arabs. Like (the Arabs), they are very attached to their property and will not agree to leave their homes."

 


'Authentic place.' Kerem HaTeimanim (Photo: Guy Tzabari) 

 

Sensing that some committee members found her comments unsettling, Lehavi clarified that "just as they are transferring Arabs out of Jaffa, Kerem HaTeimanim will be left without any Yemenites.

 

"The plan is to encourage evacuation-construction in the neighborhood, which means the evacuation of the Yemenite population," she said, adding that the City should instead allow construction on existing structures in the neighborhood.

 

After the meeting Lehavi said, "Those who claim my remarks were racist do not know that I am a proud Iraqi who is familiar with Middle Eastern mentality. Kerem HaTeimanim is an authentic place that must not be changed by implementing the suggested plan.

 

"We should stop treating the neighborhood's original residents like a weak population that needs to be evacuated from occupied land. In this case, the land has been conquered by millionaires. Weak populations, like the Yemenites in Kerem HaTeimanim or the Arabs in Ajami (Jaffa neighborhood) are the victims of a general population transfer, despite the fact that the residents are strongly connected to the places they were born and grew up in."

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.27.10, 19:51
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