CENTER
What constitutes the center and what constitutes the margin is not always a geographical issue. Often the term “center” carries cultural aspects. Take the Central Bus station in Tel Aviv, for example. Its name hints to its centrality. It is a place were thousands of people pass by every day. Yet in many ways it stands for everything that is signified as marginal in Israeli society. In fact, it, and the neighborhood where it is placed, can be taken as a symbol of the “Other Israel”. The exterior of a center. A transparent place though quite colored. A place of neglect and forgetfulness.
The Municipal Law Enforcement authorities have neglected this area where many poor people live. They allowed it to transform into a center of criminal activity, such as trafficking of women, drug dealing, corruption of public property, violence, and theft.
It is not very clean around the bus station. There are not many trees. The neighborhood where the bus station is situated is now one of the most noise and air polluted areas in Israel. The security of the people in this area, mainly women and children, has been undermined. Would that be different if these were people with more money? Of course. If they had more political power? No doubt.
There is a need to be inside the community in order to truly be involved and create change. Dissolve the boundaries. Breathe spirit in places of despair; instead of the official authorities which close their eyes to the distress of the people in the neighborhood, social movements do the job – and provide the means for creating a community.
Shlomit Lir, Co-Founder of the feminist organisation “Achoti”
