The Haifa Municipality's arbitrary decision to stop issuing permits for the march and demonstration, which have been organized for more than three years by People's protest in Haifa, is an outrageous and foolish decision. This decision succeeded, to its detriment, in rekindling the spirit of the protesters, who arrived in their thousands last Saturday – and it is clearly contrary to the spirit and soul of Haifa.
• Further down in the article you will find a letter from four city dignitaries to Mr. Yona Yahav demanding that the decision to stop the protest at Horev Junction be changed.
Liberalism and the pursuit of understanding and reconciliation
The mayor and many others often boast about Haifa being a city of tolerance, coexistence between all elements of society, liberality, and the pursuit of understanding and reconciliation. People's protest in Haifa Reflecting these values, it has been three years of determined and impressive struggle against the regime revolution, against the erosion of democracy in Israel, and against the government's depraved actions.
At its peak, the Haifa protest brought tens of thousands of demonstrators, and was also directly involved in the city council elections, demonstrating support for any candidate belonging to the democracy camp and the coexistence between ethnicities and movements in the city. Yona Yahav himself was also photographed at one of the demonstrations, cheering the crowd that elected him mayor the next day.
Freedom of protest and freedom of expression
The march did cause half of the Moriah Highway to be blocked for about fifteen minutes in each section, in one direction, and the Horev Intersection was closed for an average of an hour and a half. Even if this affected neighbors, residents, and drivers, it was a proportionate and reasonable violation in terms of balance against the public interest in protecting freedom of protest and freedom of expression, specifically in Haifa.
The mayor should have contacted the organizers.
Above all – even if anyone who believed that this was a heavy burden on the public, should have contacted the organizers and worked with them to find a prominent and central alternative location. This is despite the fact that Horev Junction has already become a national brand, and is widely spoken of not only in Haifa.
The arbitrariness with which this long tradition was stopped is worrying, especially as other events in Haifa have also begun to suffer from the restrictions. This was at a time when a major article in Haaretz newspaper prompted the mayor to publish a response boasting about Haifa's unique spirit and freedom of expression. So what prompted such a decision? Who was consulted? How does this fit in with the mayor's article just a week earlier?
Yahav solutions – and also the ability to change. The sign "Yahav, a rotten chicken" reflected the anger towards the person this square elected.
Four recipients of the Yakir Ha'ir award signed a letter to Yona Yahav
Therefore, four of the recipients of the 2015 Yakir Ha'ir Award have joined forces to write the attached appeal to the mayor, signed by Prof. Peretz Lavie, Dr. Eitan Adras, Mr. Gad Ze'evi and Prof. Yossi Ben-Artzi. We seek to be the darlings of a democratic city, founded on freedom and expression, freedom of protest and preservation of the protest tradition of the last three years. We call on the mayor to speak – and not to dismiss, to embrace – and not to push away the multitude of people who seek to express their position every week with unprecedented determination.
Sit down with the protest organizers, Yona, and implement what you wrote about and fought for all your life.
Letter from a city philanthropist to Yona Yahav:
In honor of the Mayor – Mr. Yona Yahav,
Greetings,
Subject: Call to cancel the decision not to allow demonstrations at Moriah Street Square and Boulevard
We, the HM, some of the dozen winners of the Haifa Yakir title for 2016, call on you to lift the ban on holding the Haifa People's Protest March and the rally that the movement is holding in Horev Square at the end.
The march and demonstration reflect the true spirit of Haifa, the spirit of coexistence, the pursuit of peace and the struggle for democracy in Israel. Thousands and sometimes tens of thousands of residents from Haifa and the region have been participating in the event for more than three years, and to the sound of the "Tikva" they listen to speeches crying out for the preservation and maintenance of those values on which the Haifa spirit has been founded for generations. This is the public that supported you and some of your partners in the city's leadership.
The march and demonstration do not cause too much disruption to residents. The entire event lasts two hours, most of the roads are open, and the intersection blockage does not constitute a particular nuisance and does not last long.
This arbitrary and unilateral move has already caused serious damage to Haifa's reputation as a democratic and liberal city. We call on you to reverse your decision and hold talks with the organizers about the continuation of the demonstrations, their course, and their existence.
Best regards,
Dr. Eitan Adras, Prof. Yossi Ben-Artzi, Mr. Gad Zeevi, Prof. Peretz Lavie
Every word in stone!!!!
Nail hammer!!!!!
*The demonstrations that continue, without end, and each time, under a different pretext, are political activity, the goal of which is to overthrow the Netanyahu government, through undemocratic means.
*The presentation of legal reform, the necessity of which is clear, after a series of incidents that prove that the legal system suffers from decay, abhorrence, degeneration and even corruption, at the hands of a countryman, as a political coup, wrong and even false.
Aharon Barak, he, who carried out a legal and political coup when he violated the balance between the three branches of government, took authority from the legislative and executive branches, and transformed the judicial branch into the final arbiter, the Supreme Commissioner, and in effect, into a legal, predatory and unbridled dictatorship, operating in violation of the law and above the law, and making it a laughingstock, a joke, and a laughingstock.
*The right to freedom of movement on transportation arteries, and to a peaceful life, for neighborhood residents, outweighs the right to demonstrate.
*The demonstrations that continue, without end, and each time, under a different pretext, are political activity, the goal of which is to overthrow the Netanyahu government, through undemocratic means.
*The presentation of legal reform, the necessity of which is clear, after a series of incidents that prove that the legal system suffers from decay, abhorrence, degeneration and even corruption, at the hands of a countryman, as a political coup, wrong and even false.
Aharon Barak, he, who carried out a legal and political coup when he violated the balance between the three branches of government, took authority from the legislative and executive branches, and turned the judicial branch into the final arbiter, the Supreme Commissioner, and in effect, into a legal, predatory and unbridled dictatorship, operating in violation of the law and above the law, and making it a laughingstock, a joke, and a laughingstock.
*The right to freedom of movement on transportation arteries, and to a peaceful life, for neighborhood residents, outweighs the right to demonstrate.
Bored, filthy people, stop disturbing this country from running smoothly. This people deserve peace, even the sleepwalkers and the delusional. They belong to an arrogant, fucked-up elitist camp. Enough.
The demonstrations are super important for the democratic future of Haifa and all of Israel.
Stop whining about your 'infringement on freedom of movement' and start doing something so that we can have freedom at all.
Soon you will all be turned into subjects, and then it will be too late to cry.
Enough with the false propaganda, what is happening on the country's roads is violent anarchy, and any connection between it and democracy and freedom of expression is completely coincidental.
Thank God, it's not far from a slide into violence and the city's chaos.
A welcome decision.
It's crazy to see a lone female police officer in Mapo blocking a street on the way to the main hospital.
And 0 protesters from around it.
Mr. Yahav, don't give a hand to the anarchists. Our patience has run out! We want to move freely in Haifa. The psychos want to provoke people to go demonstrate at the sea or in the Carmel forests 24/7. They will block the roads, they will harm!
If this continues like this, a disaster will happen in the center of Horeb. Mayor, it's not too late to stop the chaos before civil war breaks out here in your city. Take the initiative and don't be afraid, we will back you. We will no longer allow them to block our road in Horeb.
Audacity and boldness.
This is not a protest.
This is a public nuisance that disrupts the movement of private vehicles and buses for hours.
I didn't know that people living here support those who are ruining my business. They are pulling the advertising budget. Shame on you.
Yona Yahav is one of the city's most unsuccessful mayors.
Did nothing for the city.
Even the grandiose promise that he will eradicate the phenomenon of the yazirim does not exist because I see many of them walking around. I live in a mansion in their own home and in our house the pigs have been replaced by jackals who gnaw on nightly congeries and disturb sleep. Many millions have been invested in the Nahal HaGiborim while the roads in Haifa resemble those of the Third World.
Yahav changes parties like socks.
Please, Yona Yahav, take your hands off the protests and start taking care of the city you are neglecting.
No one is violating your freedom of protest, they just want you to stop violating our freedom of movement. No one is trying to silence you! Scream all you want on the sidewalk!
How beautiful the sidewalk won't help. Are there bicycles where Ayla will ride exactly? What happened? It's hard to contain a demonstration?
Why are they protesting in the center of Horev? Because 90% of the protesters live in Carmel. Why not protest in Hadar Carmel, for example? The answer is simple, there is no parking for all the protesters' private cars, while the center of Horev can be reached on foot.
The demonstrations have served their purpose. It is not possible to grant licenses to people who want to demonstrate each time on a different issue just for the sake of going out to demonstrate.
It's time for the public to also consider that the Moriah Highway blockades every Saturday are a constant nuisance and intolerable disruption.
Yona, I suggest you organize a march for them from the Carmel Forest to the university. Let them protest against Bibi, who rules the weather like a dictator, and as evidenced by the fact that every week it changes according to the dictator's interests...
Enough, they folded the business, there was a brother from the hospital, Carmel, who said that they canceled and postponed tests because of the blockages. Go and find out how many people were late for appointments and tests because of them. From now on, you will move to another place and protest there until 2068.
Change the location!!!! Why are we under a weekly siege???? Give another intersection that other residents of the city will also enjoy. Weekly alarm
For the benefit of false and self-serving funded whims
Release the Horev Center, we understand your imaginary pain!!! Release it
Climb another area, share more areas with your deception and disruption…
I freed us from Bivael, we will free you from the protests. What do you think? Lies???
Haters of Israel should be stripped of their title.
The left-wing demonstrations have been causing harm to residents for four years now. A central thoroughfare has been closed, and it is impossible to enter and exit Doctor Street for long hours. The screaming on loudspeakers is also very disturbing. Let the left-wing people go demonstrate for them at the beach or in another neighborhood. We have suffered enough from them. Go away.
The problem is not with the "flag bearers," but with the blocking of Horev Junction to regular traffic, often frequently, which makes it difficult to move between neighborhoods, including ambulances to Carmel Hospital. The decision to ban demonstrations at Horev Junction is excellent management of an urban problem. I wish there were more like it...
Who are you, Mr. Ben Artzi, who will block my way home for five years? Who are you and what are you to disrupt our lives? Who are you and what are you and what is your name to block the central intersection of Horev? Who are you and what are you to cause environmental filth with a host of hateful posters and stickers on every traffic light and intersection? Who are you and what is your name to deceive our lives? What right do you have to stand every week with speakers, whistles and megaphones like a bunch of children and disturb the neighbors' Shabbat rest? Who are you anyway? A bunch of stupid and hollow elitists, puffed up with themselves. Come on home!!! Want to demonstrate, have fun, get paid, but - even so, the demonstrations have hysterical funding (who finances the trucks that arrive every Shabbat with amplification equipment, stages, chairs, as if where does the money come from??????).
If anyone wants to examine why Haifa is in constant decline, why the city's best and most excellent sons and daughters are fleeing from here as long as their souls and their desire to develop there remain – one needs to see the demonstrations in Horeb, the swollen Ashkenazi population in its fellowship, all together, a few hundred enjoying their own togetherness, in the name of democracy that blocks our lives with their dictatorship.
Every word carved in stone!!
Nail hammer!!
My wife and I had to get to Carmel Hospital urgently, and because of the blocked intersection
We arrived later!!!!!
All the bored pensioners in red Haifa found something to do to make themselves known negatively.
Well, read the writer's resume. He seems respectable, but his words are shameful. Folly? They are harming the quality of life of the residents of the area. They want to demonstrate? Let those few people (yes, even thousands are few) who will disrupt their own lives do so near their homes.
True
Without getting into politics, a protest that blocks a road by itself should be a very rare occurrence.
Beyond that, the reason the photos are old is because this demonstration is a shadow of what it used to be and is already a nuisance and nothing more.
The demonstrations are indeed important and desirable. On the other hand, there is no reason for them to be held on the Moriah Horev axis. Residents in the area are suffering and must be taken into consideration. The municipality's proposal to hold the demonstration in Romema is a respectable and correct proposal. It can undoubtedly be held in the Romema Sports Hall area while minimizing disruption to neighbors and traffic.
3 years of double suffering, what is actually happening is not enough, so it is also impossible to rest on Shabbat in peace and emerge somewhat blinded from the grim situation.
Really hits home for some.
Even though I never voted for him, Yona Yahav suddenly emerged as a mayor with a backbone, ousting Avd from the city council because of her statements during a war, entering into a conflict with a large courier company and threatening to remove its operations from the city because of the danger they pose, according to him, to city residents while driving, and now finally ending the outrageous blockades of a central highway every Shabbat.
Finally, after positive actions, Yona Yahav
Maybe we can hold protests and demonstrations.
In the mother's garden?
A demonstration in Haifa demonstrates nothing, it teaches public disruption.
A regular and recurring demonstration, it has long been out of the news, it is not covered and does not interest anyone, except for the protesters themselves, who gather in a circle together on the road and stroll around happily, with no one hearing them or seeing them from a distance, except for the residents of the street, the business owners and the occasional kidnapper.
So, friends, enough is enough, or in your language, please stop and calm down immediately.
You like it.
The individual's freedom of movement is more important than freedom of expression if freedom of expression and demonstration can be exercised in many other places that do not infringe on freedom of movement.
The municipality should have internalized this simple fact at the beginning of 2023 and prevented any attempt to close intersections anywhere in Haifa, whether it's Horev or the Tzrif intersection or anywhere else.
Demonstration yes, denial of freedom of movement no.
What is strange is that all those who advocate for individual freedom do not see the terrible injustice they are doing to freedom of movement in Haifa. Apparently they have eyes but will not see, ears but will not hear, and brains but will not use them.
Apparently, these are quite a few people, mainly single adults, who are themselves victims in my opinion, who consume a lot of media and have been mind-engineered by the left-wing media, which has been brainwashing the public for a decade against the religious right, ultra-Orthodox, settlers/settlers, the salt of the earth.
Well done Haifa Municipality. This is how you should handle disturbances and traffic. Out of 60 responses, 56 responses support the mayor. Now they will shout that this is not democracy.
Bored old people should find another place to be bored, the Kofah has air conditioners and lovely nurses who will listen to them, it's more pleasant there, let them go there. They ruined transportation, people are suffering because of them.
In my personal opinion, this is a bunch of privileged old men who don't accept the voters' verdict and want to stage a coup d'état.
It's a shame you're posting a picture from about three years ago and not a picture of the handful of privileged people from the recent period.
Stop confusing the brain. They act like little three-year-old children. They don't get what they want and start crying and whining. Apparently, as others have already written. They are indeed bored. They protest just to protest. 🤦♀️
Brother, we are already the police coup, live in the movie Good Morning
Wake up before it's too late. Please, keep the liberalism and the do-kuep
People whose regular entertainment is walking the streets and making noise and chaos.
Bored old people, see themselves as an elite, but don't think about the heritage, the future, and the character of the country. We are not Europe.