Jerusalem Councilmen affiliated with Shas, Yahadut Hatorah and Bayit Yehudi are holding up the Jerusalem cultural budget for the Jerusalem Theater due to an immodest show scheduled at the venue.

During a Jerusalem Finance Committee session held on Sunday, a number of events for different sectors were approved. When asked to approve the Jerusalem Arts Festival, which includes unacceptable portions, prompting the chareidi and religious representatives to unite, deciding not to approve it despite a request from the city’s legal counsel, Eli Malka.

In the coming months, a series of cultural events are expected to be held in the city, funded by the Jerusalem Municipality’s Culture Department. The events were brought to the Knesset’s Finance Committee for approval last night, and council members approved the proposals submitted one by one.

When the request to approve “renting halls at the Jerusalem Theater for the Jerusalem Festival of the Arts” and “Free Malls” came to light, council member Yochanan Weizman presented the contents of the performances in 2017. The members, who were exposed to such incidents, refused to approve a budget for the entire festival.

In a conversation with members of the council who attended the discussion, some say that the resistance was for reasons of ‘pritzus’, and the others abstained/objected because they refused to approve events that were not completely transparent to all their plans.

As part of their protest in the Knesset Finance Committee, members of the coalition argued before the opposition council members and the attorney general, Malka, that they would not approve the festival’s performances, which they claim would include “promiscuous performances” and “abomination”.

The members of the council were Dov Kalmonovitz, Yochanan Weizman and Pini Ezra. They were joined by: Avraham Bezalel, Yitzhak Pindrus, Yael Antebi, Chagit Moshe and Eliezer Ruchberger.

Now, it is possible that Mayor Nir Barkat will try to pass the decision at the next council meeting on Thursday. “If the mayor raises the issue to a vote in the next council, the chareidim and the religious will vote against,” says deputy mayor Yitzhak Pindrus. His words are confirmed by Shas and Agudas Yisrael members.

Yochanan Weizman, a member of the city council, said in a conversation with Kikar Shabbos News that “there is no room to approve budgets for events and festivals when the sword of dismissal threatens 2,000 families of municipal employees.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)