Tel Aviv municipality lights up with German flag in solidarity

On Sunday evening, the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality lit up with the German flag, expressing solidarity in the wake of the devastating floods that left more than 150 German dead. Germany’s death toll reached 157 in its worst natural disaster in nearly six decades on Sunday. , and the European toll at 188.

Around 110 people were killed in the worst-hit district of Ahrweiler, south of Cologne. More bodies are expected to be found there as the floodwaters recede, police say. The floods, which started on Wednesday, mainly affected the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia as well as parts of Belgium. Entire communities have been cut off, without electricity or communications.

The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality building has illuminated its facade on several occasions, both to show support for another country during disasters and to celebrate with another country on a special occasion. Most famous, on August 5, 2020, Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai announced that the building would light up with the Lebanese flag, as the ailing country was reeling from the Beirut port explosion which killed more than 200 people. The movement has created a buzz since Israel and Lebanon officially went to war. Many applauded the move, while some, like Yair, the son of then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned it. In May 2017, the building also flew the flag of Egypt, as 29 Coptic Christians perished in a brutal attack when terrorists stormed the bus they were taking to a monastery in the exterior of Cairo. It also lit up with the flags of Great Britain, France, the United States and Germany, to name a few. During the first wave of the coronavirus in Israel, the building was also illuminated with the words “Bnei Brak”, in support of its neighboring town which was experiencing a particularly serious epidemic.