In recent years, the issue of the plight of residents and store owners in the Machane Yehuda area has risen to the agenda in Jerusalem several times, in light of the growing change in the market, rapidly becoming an entertainment venue for many. In anticipation of the incoming mayor and members of the council, the local community administrations are trying to take advantage of the opportunity and turn to the mayor and his council towards establishing a forum that would address the issues at hand.
Most of the distress of the residents and merchants stems from the phenomenon of selling alcohol to minors, which often leads to vandalism, property destruction and alcohol-ridden youths who lie in the market until morning, along with empty bottles of alcohol, cigarette butts and in harsher cases, drugs.
In the letter, the heads of the administrations Lev Ha’ir and the Geula Bucharim, Dr. Ofir Lang and Yisrael Isaacs, want to immediately promote an urban plan to create interaction and balance between the business owners, the activity in Machane Yehuda and to provide a solution addressing quality of life and health issues of the residents of the area.
In their letter, the two propose setting up a special forum to formulate policy and operational recommendations, including policing and municipal supervision, the legal department, business licensing, the environment and the community administrations of the city center and Geula Bucharim areas. According to the proposal, the forum will operate according to the outline proposed by the two.
Some of the issues include promoting business, creating a mix and balance between the authentic shuk and the nightlife business, strengthening enforcement against businesses that do not comply with the licensing laws, endangering public safety, and handling the nuisances caused to residents and merchants in the area.
The head of the Lev Ha’ir community council located in Nachlaot, adjacent to the shuk, Dr. Ofir Lang said, “The time has come for the authorities in general and the Jerusalem municipality in particular to get into the depths of the problems that are taking place in the backyard of the city center, to set up red lines and promote a policy to deal with the most serious hazards in the area.”
“I asked the incoming mayor, Moshe Leon, and the city council members to intervene urgently in order to advance the policy in accordance with the outline we presented and to cooperate with us to arrange the Machane Yehuda area for the benefit of residents, merchants and visitors to the area”.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Maybe if the Israeli police were to stop their political terrorism and enforced the laws against underage drinking and drug use, there would be no problem. There is a police station in the shuk. Why are there not policemen on patrol arresting law breakers? Instead of forming useless committees, form a task force to see which of the policemen there have been receiving supplemental income.
amazing to see how much the state of israel has deteriorated over the past 70 years
“Daas Torah”: are you kidding??? 70 years ago Israel was a left-wing secular socialist state where frum Jews were a fringe minority. Now, it is a centre of Torah, the majority of Israelis are traditional or religious, and the country is getting more the majority of the Jewish people will be living there within a decade. The problems are there, but Israel is much closer tot the spirit of Yisrael Saba than it has ever been.