It is nothing less than brazen hate and discrimination, as Tiveria Mayor-elect Ron Kobi, an anti-chareidi candidate whose career has blossomed, told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) “I want the chareidim to continue to grow – outside of Tiveria. Today, the chareidim comprise 22% of the city and they must not be permitted to reach 30%”.
Kobi spoke with radio host Rino Tzror, and he continued his anti-chareidi diatribe as was the case during his successful election campaign. Painful as it may be, the chareidim must see the reality, that the candidate who was openly showing his venomous opinion of chareidim received almost 50% of the vote. His campaign was run live on Facebook, and he used the platform to speak out regularly against the chareidim.
His opponent, Yossi Ben-David, was backed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who spoke out on his behalf numerous times, yet Kobi won, with his anti-chareidi position. At one point during his election campaign, he said, “It is preferable to have and Arab city than a chareidi one”, so his landslide victory should send a worrisome message to the chareidi leaders in the city.
Once again, an enemy of the chareidim is elected due in some part at least due to the chareidi split. Shas and Degel Hatorah backed the incumbent along with PM Netanyahu. The followers of Mekubal Rav Dov Kook backed the candidate Dudik Azoulai, who did not have a chance, but they took votes from the other candidate, thereby assisting Kobi.
MK (Agudas Yisrael) Menachem Eliezer Moses responded to Kobi’s anti-chareidi statements, calling them “a disgrace”, adding “Tiveria was chareidi long before you were born! Gedolei Rabbonim lived there! Would you dare speak out about the Ethiopian tzibur or the Russians? Your words are anti-Semitic and shocking”.
Both the heads of the Yesh Atid and Machane Tzioni parties responded too, both criticizing the anti-chareidi rhetoric.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
when chareidim reach large percentages of the population, problems have occurred. we are best when all types of jews live together be’shalom ve’shalvah
Since this guy is not chareidi, why would you say he’s self-hating? Second, it’s not even accurate to say that he hates chareidim. He’s probably aware that generally, the growth of the chareidi population is associated with a dramatic increase in poverty (just consider Bnei Braq, Yerushalayim, etc). You don’t need to hate chareidim to understand how demographic changes will severely impact the remainder of the population and not want that for your city.
He’s not self-hating. If I’m the mayor of a city, I want people who work, pay taxes, are not insular, are civically engaged. He’s not wrong.
Why isn’t this mayor prosecuted for hate speech? Or is it fine against Charedim but not against any other group in Israel?
To any and all who ever paid attention, Teveria is the lowest class big city in Israel.
Aside from the big hotels on the water, the place is poor and run down. and the tourist dollars do not flow into the city.
Talk to a taxi driver there some time – they will gladly tell you how dismal the state of financial opportunity is there.
As a matter of fact, much of the tourism in Teveria is goyish, focused on their religious history – they have no interest in most anything Jewish.
The terrible state of affairs there has nothing to do with the Charedim.
This is a typical case of a liberal politician using hate to drive votes in the inner city.
Maybe some Chareidi money and development would help his beleaguered muniicipality…
DrYidd Yabia Omer
“It is preferable to have an Arab city than a chareidi one”,
“It is preferable to have an Arab city than ”
Then one run by berkovitz,Huldai Or the like
Shkoiach to all the commenters who have provided ammunition for anti-Semites worldwide. The National Socialists in Germany 75 years ago also felt that their hatred was justified. How about mentioning the fact that for years, Bnei Brak received an annual police award as the city with the lowest crime rate in Israel….