Tel Aviv: poverty and eviction in the world’s most expensive city

Residents of Givat Amal Bet neighbourhood forced out to make way for further gentrification

In one of Tel Aviv's most affluent neighbourhoods, a collection of ramshackle one-storey homes with rusting roofs known as Givat Amal Bet still sits in the shadow of the high-rise towers looming above.

Israel's economic centre has recently been named the world's most expensive city to live in, overtaking Paris and Singapore in the 2021 rankings compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). As the Mediterranean city's reputation as a global tech hub continues to attract foreign investment, however, and prices for goods and services soar as Israel's economy makes a strong recovery from the pandemic, locals fear the widening gap between rich and poor is pushing out working-class residents and creating damaging new social divisions.