No, this is not a Purim parody but a true story from Bnei Brak shortly before Pesach. As many know, it is traditional in Israel for workers to receive a ‘shai l’chag’ (holiday gift) ahead of Rosh Hashanah and Pesach.

It appears that Bnei Brak Mayor Chanoch Zeibert has distributed towels to city employees. The problem lies with the sanitation workers, who insist they received a towel and they are fed up with being discriminated against. Kikar Shabbos News quotes one city sanitation worker saying “It would appear the mayor does not count the sanitation workers among the important people for we remove the trash and we were given a trashy towel”.

Histadrut National Labor Federation representatives in the city agree, and they will be seeking clarification from the mayor’s office.

City official Avraham Tannenbaum explains the matter is not one of discrimination, explaining that the sanitation workers are manpower agency workers and not city employees and in the past they never received anything but this year it was decided to give them gifts despite the fact they are not city employees. Regarding the quality of the towels given to them, Tannenbaum acknowledges they are indeed inferior.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)