Tel Aviv Councilman (Meretz) Ahmed Masharawi resigned in an act of protest, accusing the city of “trying to erase any memory of Arab names from the city’s history”.

The dispute surrounded the naming of a street in the city’s Ajami neighborhood of Jaffa. The street was named after a Jewish couple, Shmuel and Sultana Tagger who were among the city’s founding families.

The city opted not to accept the lobbying efforts of those seeking to name the street after Sheikh Bassem Abu Zeid, the imam of the Mahmoudia mosque.

Masharawi told the media that about one-third of the Jaffa area is Arab and as such, naming committee officials must begin addressing this reality. He added this is not the first time that committee members decided to turn down requests to name a street after an Arab.

Naming Committee officials explained that the law does not permit considering anyone for a street name until at least two years following his/her death, pointing out the sheikh died in 2008.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)