WORLD : Homeless Israelis End Protest
Homeless Israelis who climbed to a rooftop and threatened to commit mass suicide ended their protest today after being promised a meeting with Housing Minister Ariel Sharon.
Thirty people, including pregnant women and small children, climbed onto the Bat Yam town hall near Tel Aviv overnight and threatened to blow themselves up by igniting a tank of cooking gas.
The protesters agreed to climb down when Mayor Ehud Kinamon promised Sharon would meet them to discuss their plight.
Sharon is in charge of absorbing a massive wave of Soviet Jews whose arrival has driven rents up.
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