Following the defeat suffered by Shas last week, the chareidi representatives registered a victory in the local planning and building committee with the approval for exceptional use of the Yiras Hashem School at Patt Junction in the capital by Shas’ Ma’ayan Torah Education Network.

The committee was headed by Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, who a week ago disqualified the use of a building in the Ramot Bet neighborhood for a chareidi kindergarten.

After loud clashes within the committee, it was decided to approve the use of the building for another year and a half. The members of the city council were included (Yahadut Hatorah) Yochanan Weizman, Eliezer Ruchberger, Yaakov Halperin, Yitzhak Pindrus and Israel Kellerman. The committee’s chairman was deputy mayor Meir Turgeman, who was absent during the discussion, and at the end of which was council member Avraham Bezalel (Shas).

During the discussion, council member Laura Warton commented on the absence of Shas members from the discussion: “I am ashamed that they are not present even though this is their school.”

The committee also agreed that every six months we would update the local planning and building committee in the safety situation in the building. The school is adjacent to a gas station, the building itself was used in the past as a Bezeq telephone center and to this day there are old antennas above the building. Serious complaints were raised by the residents against the location of the school and the presence of small girls alongside a gas station and antennas that emit radiation and cause life-threatening conditions.

In the past, the building was used by Bezeq and at the beginning of the school year the building was converted to the school. Although the committee has approved exceptional use, the hearing will now reach an appeals committee, where they will probably disqualify the building.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)