Tel Aviv Mayor Shlomo Lahat has proposed that the City Council issue licenses to beggars to keep down solicitation in the streets.
The new bylaw, which the council is to debate next month, would enable the municipality to prevent anyone it considers a “public nuisance” from collecting money from the public. The council would also retain the right to designate where each beggar can work.
Most beggars in Tel Aviv gather around the central bus station and the Great Synagogue on Allenby Road.
It is not known how the City Council plans to deal with the dozens of beggars who gather round the entrances to cemeteries, with their hands outstretched under official stone-engraved signs quoting the traditional verse: “Charity Averts Death.”
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