After 15 years in office, Einat Kalish-Rotem managed to unseat Mayor Yona Yahav in Haifa, and the newly-elected mayor is already under fire, surrounding her controversial appointment of Deputy Mayor (Hadash) Raja Za’atara, who in the past has expressed his support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

In recent days, demands of party leaders and public figures from Kalish-Rotem to oust Za’atara, or at least to prevent his appointment as deputy, have been heard, including a call from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who calls on her to cancel the appointment.

However, to date, amid the shouts, the head of Degel Hatorah in Haifa, who supported Kalish-Rotem during the race, is not condemning the appointment, and in fact, he is not addressing the matter at all. The same is true of Aryeh Blitenthal of Agudas Yisrael, who entered the coalition in Haifa this week. Kikar Shabbos News contacted Blitenthal on the matter, and quotes him saying, “We have not yet formulated an opinion on the matter.”

City Councilman Uri Ozen of Shas, who appears to be heading to the opposition in Haifa, has not commented but Shas chairman Minister Aryeh Deri has openly called for the cancelation of the appointment along with the Prime Minister.

Mayor Kalish-Rotem met on Monday with Za’atara, asking him to apologize and to clarify his position. It is to be determined what the future hold for Za’atara, who may be passed over for the second person on the Hadash list.

Residents of the city have announced they will be protesting against the new mayor on Tuesday, demanding she cancel the deputy mayoral appointment.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)