Jerusalem City Hall has made good on its threat to fire city employees due to what is being described as a lack of national government assistance. YWN-ISRAEL reported earlier in the week that Mayor Barkat has instructed officials to begin preparing a list of employees that will be dismissed due to the lack of treasury funding.

City Hall on Thursday 19 Teves announced 170 sanitation workers have been let go and as many as 2,000 other city employees may follow. As a result of the dismissal of sanitation workers, garbage collection and street cleaners in the city are striking today, Thursday.

The dispute surrounds calls from Jerusalem City Hall for the treasury to release NIS 400 million in the 2016 budget. Officials in the Finance Ministry insist Jerusalem has received the funding it is entitled to and the deficit is not due to a lack of funding but the mayor’s fiscal irresponsibility.

The mayor told a session of the Knesset Finance Committee “This is one of the hardest days in my life. Jerusalem in the past year was hit with 50 terror attacks and to my sorrow, this morning I was forced to fire thousands of employees due to the lack of treasury assistance…”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)