This Thursday in Tel Aviv is the city municipality sanctioned White Night event. Apart from a few big events directly sponsored and planned by the city council itself, many smaller events are planned across the city by private art galleries, restaurants, venues, shops and clubs. Normally, DIY Tel Aviv would be the first to give you English language listings about the night’s events, but this year the White Night is marred by a black day and night preceding it. Over the weekend, the mayor’s cronies joined with the police to violently (and, in some cases) illegally suppress the renewing J14 protest, including causing damage to people’s property and, in some cases, to the people themselves.The Tel Aviv mayor is at the forefront of Israel’s whitewashing, pinkwashing and “coolwashing” and part of the reason why his employees were so vicious in ridding scenic Rothschild Blvd. of any sign of civilian protest is because he wants to present Tel Aviv as pretty, happy, clean and liberal. There’s no room for protesters, homeless people or disgruntled citizens in this Utopian Tel Aviv.
Sadly, the other side of this unwholesome coin is touting doubtlessly cool city wide events like the White Night to make people think everything is wonderful. In this light, DIY Tel Aviv withdraws support for this year’s White Night event. I will be listing this weekend’s parties as usual and the listings will obviously include some parties on Thursday as well (no official city ones, just alternative / underground ones). I will also write about any good protests being planned. Apart from that, I’m afraid you’re going to have to find the info yourselves. I’m sorry I’m not providing the info you’re after this time and I’m sorry I won’t be able to provide the usual support for artists and musicians showing and performing on the night. There are a lot of good things happening and most of them have nothing to do with the council itself. Unfortunately, sometimes you just have to take a stand for what you think is right and I don’t want my guide to be seen as supporting a Tel Aviv municipality initiative at this time. If you are a tourist, then this really isn’t your fight, so you may well choose to go to one of the big events anyway, but if you do, please remember the other side of what happens in Tel Aviv and don’t forget to tell your friends. Thank you for your understanding.
You could do a lot of people a big favor by posting dates of protests and demonstrations. its pretty difficult to find current and reliable information on fb.
As it happens, I’m working on a post right now about the next few, though there are demos pretty much every day 🙂