Tel Aviv Rooftop

This weekend the annual Tel Aviv art festival took to the streets. We took a walk along Yehuda Hayamit in Yaffo, a normally nondescript commercial street in a mixed Jewish-Arab area  that turned up some suprises. Outside the Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) building two dancers performed in front of a small crowd . This trio of Arab girls had a strategic view next to spotlights and seemed entranced. a From the outside, the studio/salon at number 20 looked pretty dilapidated but the interior revealed this cosy area. Further up the road, an explosion of primitivist colour. Not often that you see a cellist playing at the entrance of a carpentry shop, so  we were drawn in. To find that the cellist had friends making electronic sounds at the back. On the way we met Ahmad who was taking advantage ofthe crowds to display his bicycle technique. He agreed to have his picture taken on condition that it would appear on the internet. So this is for you Ahmad. ...

We were out on the streets last night, together with another 400-450,000 people, in what was optimistically dubbed The 'March of the Million'. The million didn't materialize but it was still the biggest protest ever held in Israel. All these photos were taken on the upmarket Kikar Hamedina (State Square), an ironic venue for a social protest Encompassed by boutiques selling Tshirts for hundreds of shekels, hundreds of thousands of Israel's long suffering middle class came to chant, perhaps for the last time this summer "ha am dor esh tzedek chevra ti! " (the people demand social justice!). An English speaking protestor turned the familiar graphic slogan "I (heart) Tel Aviv " into, "I can't afford to (heart) Tel Aviv " The (religious) Reform movement touts a banner quoting a Biblical commandment to pursue righteousness Like all the previous demonstrations, this one too, though noisy, was completely peaceful. On the outski...