Silent Party Protest in Tel Aviv

A silent protest party took place at Meir Dizingof Garden in the centre of Tel Aviv. The party was held in response to the closing by the police of some nightclubs and bars during recent New Year's Eve celebrations which allegedly contravened current regulations. Tel Aviv, Israel. 08/01/2010.

Friday, Jan 08, 10, 14:00-17:00 a Protest silent party took place at Meir Dizingof Garden, central of Tel Aviv.
A slent party is when people are coming with their iPod’s & ear phones & dance to the music only they can here from their own iPod or any other MP3 player.
The protest Silent party came as a response to the closing of some night clubs & bars in Tel Aviv that Happened @ New Years Eve.
Those hangout places got shut down for unlimited time because according to the police they were over crowded. The law regarding the amount of people limit inside public places says there should be a 1 square meter per person inside every public place.
As u can see , at the silent party, there was a nylon strip on the ground marking the 1 square meter per person.

According to Yaron Trax , 39 YO, The Owner of “The Block” night club, who’s standing behind this Silent party , on New Years Eve, around midnight the Mair of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai, came for a visit in the area & his night club, accompanied with his entourage, to check out & see the development this area of city needs. His vice mair, apologized that the place is full & might be a little crowded for te mair, Huladu replayed that it is better this way. Had a look around, talked with a few of the people parting @ the Block night club & left.
20 minutes after, around 24:50 one police officer with civilian clothes, looked inside the club, said that there are to many people in there & the place is now shut down until further notice.
Out side of the night club there were 20 more polices officers & half a dozen horseman.

In the block night club there is a Thermo meter, one of the regulations that Tel Aviv City hall requires, says that there are 531 people inside while regulation allow only 300.
& that’s only an hour & a half of party that people paid money for it.

Roy Zakheym, 30 YO, Owenr of te Shesek bar also got shut down on New Years Eve with the same reason, although his story his a little more annoying.
The Shesek is open & running since 2001, Roy bought the business @ 2007 & the place has all the licenses needed from the police, city hall, fire department etc.
At new years eve a police officer came inside the bar & told roy that there roughly 15 people more then allowed in the bar. The Shesek doesn’t have the people Metter.
The police officer asked Roy to get 15-20 people out from the bar now or his place will be shutdown immediately.
The REAL annoying part was that during the week after the new years eve while Roy tried to open his business again , suddenly , the police had issues, you don’t have a people meter, get one, where? Find out your self. There’s only one company making those meters in Israel & the cost is 8500-7500 NIS depends on the kind: Thermo or Infra red.
Suddenly, the emergency fire escape door is wrong & need to be upgraded, & that’s for a business that is up & running for the last 8 years.
After an ongoing back & forth with the police for a few days the Police told Roy the only one that can approve the reopening of the Shesek is the police commissioner & he will be back only on Thursday.
Friday the place was working again.

Yaron, “The Block” however had a talk with the police commissioner two weeks after, where he said that the press showed the police as the bad guys, & he’s not going to be that guy so he’s letting him reopen the club.

The law in Israel states 1 square meter per person in public places while all over the US & Europe its between 0.70-0.65 meter per person.
There are attempts to change that law to the US- Euro standard.