In Israel police have started pulling down the tented cities built by social protesters over the last two months. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers have wrecked an Israeli Defense Force base for dismantling Israeli illegal outposts in the West Bank.
The police not only dismantled protesters’ tents in Tel-Aviv, but also took away their possessions. The move to pull down the protesters’ tents came less than a day after Tel-Aviv’s administration promised to protect the demonstrators and cooperate with them.
Wednesday’s police action led to clashes between the camps’ inhabitants and officers, as well as calls for Tel-Aviv’s mayor to resign.
The camps have been part of the nationwide demonstrations which have been pressing for social justice in Israel for two months.
Danny Dayan, the chairman of the Yesha council of Jewish settlements from Jerusalem, hopes the protesters’ demands for social justice will not be discouraged by police actions.
“These tense demonstrations arose from the social problems which were for a long time neglected. Israeli society was too obsessed with the question that Mahmud Abbas said last night,” Dayan told RT. “I hope these protests mark a change in priority.”
Meanwhile in the West Bank, Jewish settlers vandalized an Israeli Defense Force base, labeling at least ten military vehicles with the words “Price Tag” in Hebrew.
The police also say the vandals set fire to a mosque, uprooted trees, damaged vehicles and sprayed graffiti. The wreck is regarded as a response to the IDF earlier dismantling several illegal outposts, namely Israeli caravans in the West Bank, which occupied the land without permission from the Israeli government and proclaimed themselves an Israeli settlement.
A special squad was dispatched to deal with the vandals in the West Bank, reports the Jerusalem Post.