Beit Shemesh Mayor Rabbi Moshe Abutbul walked out of a Knesset committee meeting addressing the honor of women, on Wednesday morning. The mayor explained to committee members that they have already made up their minds and regardless of what he does or says, the committee will be against him.
There were sharp exchanges of words between the mayor and committee chair Likud MK Limor Livnat. The mayor explained he does not feel compelled to apologize for the actions of every person who labels himself chareidi, and this campaign to obtain statements of condemnation from all chareidi leaders is absurd, no less so than efforts to depict the chareidi community at large in a bad light.
Abutbul told Kol Chai Radio that there is no discrimination against women in his city, and yes, there are gender-separated and mixed events in the city, each acting in line with neighborhood norms. The mayor stated that he rejects any and all attempts to compel frum residents to do away with separate seating because it is unreasonable in their eyes, calling upon them to respect the ways of others.
Rav Abutbul reiterated his opposition to violence and his support for democratic values, but told Kol Chai that Livnat simply was unprepared and made false accusations, stating she should be dismissed from her post for her unacceptable actions at the meeting, simply lashing out at him without any factual data to back up the allegations.
Regarding Beit Shemesh, the mayor assured Kol Chai life in the city is tranquil and the reports of conflict that paint a different picture are exaggerated and simply do not reflect day-to-day life in the city.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
Its more and more obvious that the ‘hate wave’ of violence and negative media coverage against charedim is organized crime, they don’t give up, and are now fighting to force their ways on the frum and observant.
Its more and more obvious that the denials of responsibility by charedishe leadership is organized crime, they don’t give up, and are now fighting to force their ways on everyone.
Perhaps the MAYOR should spent some time on Rechov Herzog in front of the Orot School, just to welcome and give all residents a Shalom ALeichem.
Perhaps the residents in the area should stop disrespecting Rabbanim all over the blogosphere. Perhaps they should not have gone to the anti-religious media causing harm to many many other people. When they brought this whole thing to the world floor they brought attacks on Chareidim. hard to say who is more guilty at this point. While the zealots were 1000 percent wrong.. actions that cause attacks on other innocents makes them guilty as well. It should be known that Mayor Abutbul is being attacked by the residents because they do not like that he is being above board with them and doing everything he can to stop the violence.. As if the previous Mayor (Valkin) was not corrupt.. He was for sure corrupt.. Bringing this to the anti-religious media will hurt ALL of us..and that shows a lot about their integrity as well.. there are extemists on both sides.
chareidirbs,
i’m with you 100%
abutbul’s been the subject of some nasty pashks calling him רש”ע העיר
רש”ע = ראש עיריה
for participating at a zionistic event
so please, he’s not that “farfrummt” as the left make him to be
he’s doing his job, representing all the groups of his city, and yes, including the chilonim
Kol hakavod
The mayor is being attacked by the residents because of his INACTION on DAY ONE of the harrassment, and on every subsequent day thereafter when nothing was done. That is why this garnered any attention at all. If he wishes to salvage his position, he would be wise to apologize. And he could explain WHY he did nothing. I am sure that he does not agree with what these extremists did, but by maintaining a silence he showed a lack of leadership which makes him have to answer to the higher authorities. Do you not see that if he would have stopped this in the first hour that he had heard of it there would be NO news coverage, no discontent and most importantly No chilul Hashem?
Let’s use a different example. You are the manager of a company and one of your workers spits at and verbally harasses a female employee. She rightly complains to the manager who does nothing. She will then go to the next level up in order for her complaint to be addressed. Upper management will weigh in whether this manager is competent or not.
A mayor is a city manager. Right now his competence is under the microscope. The bad publicity he allowed to happen caused great harm to the name of BS and horrible publicity for Israel. Irrepairable damage!
Sadly, the anti Zionists who caused this whole mess achieved their goal of mockery of the State of Israel in the eyes of the world. Now we are seeing increasing levels of anti semitism worldwide. The horrible comments about Jews in the world media is enough to shake anyone up.
7 and 8- he has been doing exactly what he is supposed to since day 1.. the protesting wasn’t so bad in the beginning and could easily have been argued as their legal right to protest. The mayor is not in charge of disputes. That is the job of the POLICE.
The Nat’l religious community did not have to go to the anti religious media, they did not have to exlpoit Naama Margolese like that ..
The Natl religious community hates him because he does not play their game. They are vicious. THEY are the ones that caused the Chillul Hash-m. They could have kept it in Israeli news but they chose to make it international.
I for one will vote for him again. He is working hard for all sectors. The Dati Leumi community is constantly after him. They are making lists of all the faults of the mayor etc. They disrespect anybody who doesn’t believe every last word of their narrative. They are extremists in their vendetta against the mayor and have cause innocent chareidim to be attacked for no good reason!!!!