Merchants at the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market in Jerusalem are holding a demonstration this morning, Sunday, following the government’s decision to leave the market closed this week, as well, despite an ease in restrictions for other business sectors.
Police are trying to evacuate the protesters and threatening to write tickets. There have been clashes at the scene between police and merchants, and one protester was detained and placed in a police car.
Ahead of the demonstration, Chairman of the Shuk Merchants, Tali Friedman, called the government “detached,” telling it to “wake up and allow us to open the market. You forgot who is essential to citizens, you spit in our faces.
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She accused the government of “allow[ing] barbers and beauty salons to go back to work so that they enrich the state coffers instead of working on the black market, not because they are essential and certainly not because of their ability to keep the Ministry of Health guidelines. ”
“The government’s disdain for us people of the market has crossed all borders,” Friedman emphasized.
“Supermarket owners are counting up the bills, and we’re counting up the debts. Next time some politician comes here to collect votes for the election, we will kick him out of here with grating contempt. They should go find votes at IKEA and the supermarkets.”
Police have summoned Tali Friedman, who represents Mahane Yehuda shop owners, for questioning following a protest at the Jerusalem market over the continued closure of open-air markets, Army Radio reports.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion says he backs the shop owners.
“I hope that the government will soon approve the opening of the market, which is a source of income for hundreds of Jerusalemite families,” he writes on Twitter. “I promise to you, market vendors and Jerusalem residents, that I won’t let up until the market is reopened.”
Header: Store owners at Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market scuffle with police during a protest over the continued closure of open-air markets, April 25, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Original: Arutz Sheva