Employees of the booths inside Mahane Yehuda, the famed marketplace in central Jerusalem, protested at the entrance of the market on Sunday morning due to the extended closure of the marketplace, despite the government deciding to ease restrictions on other businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Upon the arrival of the police at the market, clashes began between marketplace workers and the security forces.
Maariv, the sister publication of The Jerusalem Post, reported that one of the market workers was arrested for refusing the requests of an officer, after which he was fined. According to local newspaper Kol Hair, some salespeople were arrested.
The police claimed that they were there to upkeep the health regulations brought about due to the novel COVID-19.
The protest was large, with a sign at the entrance reading, "Welcome to IKEA Mahane Yehuda." This was an angry gesture due to the opening of IKEA stores in Israel, despite the danger of long lines and crowded stores putting people at risk of contracting the virus.
"I support merchants and strengthen them," said Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.
"In the past weeks, I have worked hard to open the Mahane Yehuda market, and I am sure that there is no reason that other complexes are open and the market is not," he explained. "I presented an organized plan for the market to open and offered more than once that the municipality take responsibility for the market upkeep of Health Ministry regulations.
"I promise to continue and not let go until the market reopens," Lion concluded.
"We are willing to follow every instruction there is, only that the government give us the right to make a living with respect," Tali Freidman, head of the Merchants Committee, said, according to Ynet.
"We, the merchants, sat for long days with Mayor Moshe Lion who immediately joined our cause, and together we built a plan which will turn the Mahane Yehuda market into a very secure place with maximum control over what happens inside it, whether it be the amount of people inside, making sure everyone inside is donning masks, and validating that everyone is keeping a safe distance away from one another," she concluded.