Channels

Sunday march to Knesset
Photo: Noam Moskowitz

Housing crisis: Protestors block entrance to Knesset

Dozens of activists block access route to Knesset building by mounting brick wall. Knesset committee to discuss bill PM Netanyahu believes will ease housing crisis

Dozens of demonstrators blocked the access route to the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday in protest of high housing rates. "The people demand social justice," they chanted. As they clashed with police officers, the protestors proclaimed "They're also with us, they have no apartments."

 

Five protestors were arrested and one officer was lightly hurt. The protestors were trying to build a brick wall to block the road.

 

 

The Knesset is scheduled to vote on a bill Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims will ease the housing crisis this week. "We are building a home here, because one cannot build in Israel even if one works," one protestor told Ynet.

 

The protest was meant to achieve "concrete solutions in the housing field," another added. "We will not stop until all out demands are met. We want a housing revolution."


'People demand social justice' (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

 

A special Knesset committee will discuss the national housing committees bill on Monday ahead of second and third reading votes in the plenum on Wednesday. On Sunday it was reported that Netanyahu has decided that the bill will also promote affordable housing for the needy in addition to housing units for rent.


Building brick wall (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

 

On Sunday, roughly 1,000 people marched towards the Knesset, in protest of the housing prices in Israel.

 

The protestors were joined by activists from the housing protest encampment which was erected last week in Jerusalem, activists from the left wing Solidarity Sheikh Jarrah group and representatives from the Black Panthers movement. The protestors sat at the King George Street, Egron Street intersection and blocked traffic.

 

Later on Sunday night, Tel Aviv Municipality inspectors cleared several protest tents in the Levinsky Park in south Tel Aviv and evacuated the dwellers. Some of the protestors claimed the inspectors confiscated valuable equipment.

 

Shula, one of the protestors, claimed that the evacuation at an area inhabited by many foreign workers was motivated by racism.

 

The Municipality said in response: "The allotted area for the tent protest is Rothschild Boulevard and this was conveyed to the Levinsky Park protestors. The protestors were given time to clear the area themselves and failing that it was cleared at dawn. The equipment will be returned to its owners."

 

Yair Altman and Naama Cohen-Friedman contributed to this report

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.25.11, 09:52
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment