Protest (file)
Protest (file)Israel news photo: Flash 90

About 20 protesters hurled eggs and paint at the Tel Aviv Municipality building Wednesday afternoon, as the housing protest took a violent turn. The rioters were angry at the municipality's decision to clear the illegal tent cities that sprang up in several locations earlier this summer.

Among those arrested was Yigal Rambam, touted as one of the housing protest's leaders from its inception.

Ironically, they were heard on the IDF station explaining their violent behavior by saying that one cannot simply throw people out of the tents that are their property and which they built. Observers wondered whether that was a consideration taken into account in the Gush Katif expulsion, where police were met with passive resistance despite their destroying permanent homes and lives.

The rioters tried to break into the municipality and blocked off Ibn Gabirol street's southbound lanes. 

Police escorted Mayor Ron Huldai out of the building.

The protesters focused much of their anger at Huldai for ordering the tent cities' demise. They shouted "arrest Huldai," "for shame!" and the protest slogan – "the nationdemands social justice!"

The protest leaders have come under fire for allegedly agreeing to end the "tent phase" of the protest, and possibly even initiating the decision to fold the tents. Critics say that the well heeled "leaders" were pre-selected by the professional media manipulators who are the brains behind the protest and that they do not really care for the homeless.