Jerusalem’s chareidi elected officials may have reached agreement with Mayor Nir Barkat regarding the Ramot community council, but the residents of the community have not had their last say and they are showing the chareidi councilmen that they are less than pleased with the current situation.
At the heart of the battle is the controversy over who will control the Ramot Matnas community center. Today, with Ramot being overwhelmingly chareidi, the frum tzibur is demanding control of the center to enable restructure the community budget to better reflect the needs of the majority, as was reported by YWN-Israel in September 2011. Actually, the tzibur does not expect to be granted automatic control, but wants elections, as is the process that exists in other neighborhoods as well. Mayor Nir Barkat however does not want elections, realizing the demographics, which means he will lose another neighborhood to the chareidim.
In short, the area is now by-and-large chareidi, and the community leaders want control, unwilling to permit the dati leumi or other sectors control the neighbor funding and setting the priorities in the community government. Chareidi activists question why a minority is permitted to continue controlling the community center when the neighborhood is overwhelmingly chareidi, while in non-chareidi areas elections are held on schedule.
The mayor is trying to maintain a measure of control, first trying to offer the chareidim 1 million NIS above their current budget, which was rejected. The mayor then announced there would be two local councils, which would be overseen by a City Hall steering committee. The latter proposal was received with an equal measure of enthusiasm as was the mayor’s million shekel offer.
Residents last month formed an action committee to take on city hall, and this vaad is indeed active, printing flyers and literature towards educating the community and sending a clear message to city hall, that compromise will not be accepted.
The residents feel the chareidi councilmen are selling them out to the mayor, pointing a finger of blame at Councilmen Yossi Deutsch, Yitzchak Pindrus and Eli Simchayoff. Action committee officials report that in Ramot today, there are 36,930 chareidi residents, representing 75% of the neighborhood’s overall population. Therefore they explain, they are entitled to run the local community council and make the critical decisions, and there is no reason to justify splitting the budget and control with anyone.
They are calling for simple democratic elections, aware the majority will rule. Leaders of the struggle point out that every neighborhood holds elections and there is no reason the same should not hold true in Ramot, except for the fact the mayor does not want to ‘lose’ control of another neighborhood to chareidim.
The chareidi councilmen have made public statements reassuring the chareidi residents of Ramot, insisting they would never cooperate with city hall efforts to divide the community, but the action committee leaders’ state this is exactly what they have done.
Community leaders promise that in the very near future flyers will be distributed telling exactly what the real situation is and then it will be clear to all.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
I live in Ramot. The problem is simple. In 1978, when I first came to Ramot there were really NO charadim. Slowly but obviously, it has become more and more religious. Ramot dalet is all religious, Ramot alef which was non religous is mostly religious, Ramot gimel which was also non religous is mostly religious and Ramot bet is traditional and non religious.
The people who were in charge of the Ramot administration are left overs from the non religious era and totally out of contact with the reality of the situation. The non religious are leaving and the religious are moving in.
Who needs non religious to run our religious affairs??
@lazerc “Who needs non religious to run our religious affairs??”
Who’s talking about running religious affairs? The dispute is over control of the Matnas. As I recall, the Matnas is basically on the border of Ramot Bet and Ramot Gimmel, not in an especially Charedi neighborhood. It also (if I recall) doubles as a mizrachi shul on Shabbos. What exactly do the Charedim need with it? There is no reason at all to create a dispute over that building.