TA: Police, cafe employees clash
Southern Tel Aviv cafe workers detained by police after refusing to provide identification, turn down music. Witnesses claim police brutality; police say policeman was locked inside cafe
The cafe held a meeting of a group called "Women in Yellow", and city inspectors were called to the scene in order to contain the noise.
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The group's activists claimed the policemen treated them with brutality, and following the event, a demonstration in front of Tel Aviv District Police offices will be held Tuesday at 8 pm.
According to the police, a city inspector who arrived at the scene asked one of the cafe operators to provide identification in order to fine her, yet he was refused. He turned to the police in order to receive assistance and another policeman and municipal inspector arrived at the scene.
According to police, one of the women locked the policeman inside the cafe.
Shortly before the event, the opposition's candidate for mayor of Tel Aviv Aharon Maduel was at the cafe, after touring the city's southern neighborhoods. According to him, upon leaving the establishment, dozens of police officers and inspectors arrived and the women were violently arrested.
"They brutally arrested the cafe owner and an employee who was busy closing up the place for the night," he said. "The State of Israel has gone mad. Only a few steps away from there alcohol and illegal drugs are being sold on a daily basis and the citizens are afraid to walk alone at night.
"How is it possible that dozens of municipal inspectors and policemen violently arrest women busy washing dishes? I demand accountability from the chief of police and mayor of Tel Aviv," Maduel added.
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