Ashkelon residents in line of fire
צילום: גיל יוחנן
Southern vendors sell in Tel Aviv
Hangar 11, in Tel Aviv Port, hosts two-day fair for businesses from rocket-stricken communities
In an effort to provide both support and funds to residents of Gaza vicinity communities, Tel Aviv is hosting a fair for vendors whose businesses, as well as their lives, have suffered from the constant Palestinian rocket fire.
Many businesses in the south are on the verge of collapse, due to the security situation in the region.
In an effort to address this situation, "Wrapping the South with Love" was open to the public in Hangar 11, at the Tel Aviv port on Sunday, from 10:00 am to midnight, and Monday, from noon to midnight.
Two hundred small businesses from the beleaguered region will gather to sell art, flowers, clothes, jewelry.
As part of the initiative – co-sponsored by the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee, the Tel Aviv municipality, the Tel Aviv Port and Hangar 11 – restaurants and businesses in the port will be offering discounts for residents from areas under fire, with proper ID.
The first such effort to help Gaza vicinity businesses was the "Buying with Love from Sderot and the Gaza Vicinity" project, sponsored by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor even prior to the launch of Operation Cast Lead.
The project encourages deals and purchases between businesses in the line of fire and businesses elsewhere in Israel. A thousand businesses and companies are listed as participants in the project.
Additionally, malls and shopping centers – among them, the convention center in Rishon Letzion and Malcha Mall in Jerusalem – have been hosting businesses from Sderot in order to help them sell their wares.
Carmit Avraham Branovsky, of Sderot's 'Gaya's Soaps', is sending her husband and mother to the latest fair, at Hangar 11. "We sell handmade fragrant soaps and candles (at the store) and will be selling books of Psalms and good luck charms. My mother will also be selling homemade jams," she said.
"Last week we sold things in Rishon Letzion, Ashkelon and Tel Aviv. Before that, my business was completely closed. My children are stuck and home and I can't bring a 3-year-old girl to the shop," she explained.
"These fairs help a lot, and it's not just that people come and buy things. The moral support is a very special and important phenomenon," she said.
