Neveh Shaanan, a little old quarter not more than 10 minutes’ drive from the centre of Tel Aviv, has become a modern Tower of Babel. Within its few little streets it is host to a large population of all origins and sorts: work migrants from Africa, East Europe, Russia, Turkey, China, The Philippines, to name but a few; refugees from South Sudan, Eritrea and other African countries. They live there, and in adjacent quarters, in tiny rented apartments, or come to do their shopping, eat and drink with friends, and look for sex, intermingling with Israelis, mostly poor, fringe people, as well as homeless, drug addicts and alcoholics who find shelter in the quarter’s many derelict houses, and with prostitutes of various origins who practice their profession in order to support their drug habit, sometimes living with their pimps/drug pushers.
The old quarter which is destined by the municipality’s plans to become a fashionable quarter of tall apartment and office houses, is being gradually demolished, house by house. But in the meantime its mixed people go on living side by side, living the day and not knowing what will bring the morrow.
