The energy at the demonstration and immediately following it was incredible. It felt like a change was happening; people cared, came out, yelled for change and even more importantly committed to bringing that change about. A sentiment of true empowerment and the volition to bring about a better future.
The next day, I suffered from major big-demonstration-withdrawal. In my head, question marks hovered, what have we accomplished so far? Can we continue doing this? Can we unify all the different voices pulling in different directions? It was a difficult day for me.
My tent village had voted twice to minimize our area, to leave only a few symbolic tents and move beyond the symbols into the actual work that lay ahead. We even cleaned, swept and polished the avenue where we slept in preparations. But as the moment of truth came, people didn’t want to fold - their tents. Suddenly, solidarity with those who had no choice but to sleep in a tent became a burning issue. This gained steam the next day as reports of forced evacuations and such plans surfaced. The city of Tel Aviv though, offered us flowers. City officials came by and placed a red rose on each tent along with a cute note saying that the city supports the protests but still would like to get the streets ‘clean’ by Rosh Hashana – Jewish new year at the end of the month. The city committed to continuing a dialogue with the tents and to notify the tents inhabitants if any ‘cleaning’ would happen. Satisfied with the city’s support, I, like many of my fellow tent dwellers, went to sleep at home that evening.
At 5:30 am the next morning, trucks arrived at various tent areas and picked up tents that were ‘uninhabited’ and in general ‘trash’.
Lies lies lies.
The foreign workers that were doing the dirty work, picked up a tent that suddenly became alive as the grandmother that sleeps in the tent village, all 73 years of her, woke up and yelled. She alerted others and suddenly people came out to stop the ‘cleaning’. A bit too late, two trucks had already left with ‘trash’ - tents, couches, sofas, and other belongings to the big trash area of Tel Aviv county. The third truck, we were able to stop and re-place many of the tents. Still, much damage had been made. Of the over 150 tents, only 32 remained. Luckily for me, mine was one of them.
These events led to a protest in front of the city hall, which became violent – much due to the police though (ok, I can say that as a protester and be ‘unbiased’…). Protesters that Saturday yelled in respect to the police, like we yelled at every demonstration, dear police officer, you are worth more (in the sense that the protests were also about their rights for fair wages and chance to live adequately), suddenly were yelling – police state, police state.
The city mayor came out and spoke about why he ‘wiped the streets clean’ from the dirty anarchists, the drug users and homeless inhabitants of the tent villages. None of these things were true of my tent village.
None.
A legal fight began about the right of the city to forcefully remove tents (who are there illegally, true, but for over 30 days at this point which gives them some rights) and for the compensation of people’s belongings. Suddenly, we had 24/7 presence of city inspectors making sure that no new tents were placed in the streets.
The protest was changing directions, and losing some of its previous focus. Many discussions ensued about where are we going and what is our goal, with differing opinions.
Last Saturday, the next stage of the protest began with round table discussions that included many of the community who previously had been less active. The idea is for people to suggest solutions and to eventually enact them. The mayor came to one of these collection of tables, the largest one, upon an invitation. He received a chorus of boos and yells, eventually leaving. We invited him to our tent area, but on condition that he come with no press.
He came, and even apologized. A political, weak and in fact meaningless apology in which he claimed he didn’t know that the events would take place this way and that the timing was wrong. But still, he acknowledged. He said that the city is willing to allow for a community space to remain in which people can meet and talk and do what we have been doing, but he repeated, strongly, his demand that the streets be ‘clean’ by new year’s.
And this is where we stand today, a legal fight that continues (next decision is due tomorrow) and now, a dialogue with the city in search of a compromise. And still, we are here, the fight continues and the focus, a bit lost but still hangs around, to better our lives here, still leads the way.
Social justice is the name.
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