A real battle is currently taking place in which senior officials of the Degel Hatorah party are involved with senior members of the Peleg Yerushalmi faction ahead of a meeting of the Jerusalem Municipality’s allocations committee, which is expected to discuss approval of a number of allocations for shuls used by the Peleg.

The allocations involved are in the neighborhoods of N’vei Yaakov, Ramot A, and Romeima. The main struggle in the attempt to block the allocation takes place in the Ramot Alef neighborhood, where there is a large Litvish community opposed to the allocation of the Peleg.

The professional allocations committee was expected to meet at 15:30 at Safra Square on Tuesday, 19 Adar, at which time it was expected to discuss hundreds of requests for allocations that were received until 18:00.

In recent months, senior officials at Degel Hatorah, together with the Degel Hatorah Vaad Rabbonim, have been in contact with the director-general of the municipality in an attempt to torpedo allocations to Bnei Torah members in Jerusalem, with the latter being affiliated with the Peleg.

If the committee rejects the approval of the allocations, the people of ‘Degel’ will win a victory against the faction members who did not support the party and demand the intervention of Mayor Nir Barkat in order for the allocations to be approved by the committee.

Sources at Degel Hatorah in Jerusalem are quoted telling Kikar Shabbos News that the allocation to Bnei Torah was not given in the wake of real needs, but rather for private political motives. “The mayor is willing to give political benefits to the people who have chosen him, and now one of the benefits is allocations for party members.”

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor (Bnei Torah) Chaim Epstein responded, telling Kikar Shabbos “there are people who seek places of worship after they were thrown out viciously, cruelly and wickedly from their shuls. Whatever argument they use, we can only hope the committee will remain professional, realize the need and allocate the funds.”

One of the activists in Ramot Aleph explains in a conversation with Kikar Shabbos that there is no desire to torpedo the allocation for the faction, but to accept the place for the Degel Hatorah people, who are the majority in the neighborhood and suffer from a severe shortage of space.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)