The office of the Jerusalem Legal Counsel on Monday 12 Tishrei rejected the claims of attorney Yossi Chavilov, a former attorney general of the municipality, who opposed the allocation of a cultural budget to the chareidi public.

A few months ago, the municipality approved a sum of 130 million shekels as the cultural budget of the chareidi community in the city, as part of the celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the city’s liberation in the Six-Day War.

The one who rushed to argue against this budget approval is Yossi Chavilov, when he says that public funds should be invested in other areas such as welfare and cleanliness, and not in the sphere of culture for the chareidi sector.

Attorney Chavilov also claimed that the money was approved “in the dark”, that it was a political and unprofessional decision, that it was a criminal offense to buy sympathetic coverage of Mayor Nir Barkat and especially that this allocation was made unequally and without criteria, as he put it. He insisted it was back-room deal-making and not following accepted procedure for allocating funds.

But his arguments were rejected by attorney Dan Ben-Tal of the municipal legal department, who wrote in his letter that nothing had been done in the dark.

As for the claim that public funds should be invested in welfare and cleanliness rather than culture for the chareidi sector, it says that “the municipality has a chosen echelon and it is the one that sets the city’s priorities in the city, including for the chareidi public, is not indicative of an incorrect order of priorities, and in any event, it is a legitimate public city decision”.

Regarding claims of buying a favorable coverage for Barkat, it says that it is “fashionable these days, on the national level, but there is not even a shred of evidence.”

Regarding the manner of allocation, Ben-Tal mentions that the budget was divided among five different parties, representing the entire population of the chareidi sector, without any premeditated preference, which also explains the connection with Kol Chai Radio – a decision that ” For this, as well as the sponsorship of a special supplement of an English-language newspaper in order to “appeal to the chareidi Jerusalemite public, which has different rules and a different agenda, so it should not be mixed with the Hebrew newspaper Hamodia.”

He basically explained the allocations were not made by favoritism in one direction or another, but simply stated, by meeting the needs of the tzibur in question, in this case the Jerusalem chareidi community.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)