Jerusalem Councilman Rabbi Eliezer Reichenberg told Kol Berama Radio on Wednesday 26 Shevat that Kiryat Yovel community council official Yechiel Levy must be ousted from his post following his interview on Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) on Tuesday.
During the interview, Levy explained his systematic plan to embitter the lives of chareidim in Kiryat Yovel towards getting them to leave. Reichenberg explains no apology can be accepted and he must be removed from his post.
The councilman’s words are in line with statements heard a day earlier from Minister Aryeh Deri and Yaakov Litzman, as well as Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.
Chareidi party heads sent a letter to Mr. Aviad Friedman, who heads the community councils. Both Yahadut Hatorah and Shas officials in the city government signed the letter.
Levy also sent a letter to Friedman on Tuesday, in which he expresses sorrow and remorse over his statements. “There is no justification for what I said and the words do not represent who I am” he wrote, adding he has been a faithful public servant for decades.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Let’s take the political rhetoric out of this and examine the situation in a more dispassionate way. Getting agitated and shouting is the Israeli way of doing things but sometimes one needs to just stand back and look more clearly at what is going on. Mr Levy was appointed to do his best to make Kiryat HaYovel a better place for its residents. If he fails to acknowledge that the population of Kiryat HaYovel has and is changing he should resign, not because he has necessarily done anything wrong or because he expressed himself in an arrogant and abusive way but because his blindness means he can no longer carry out his job. His job is not to do what he thinks is right but to further the interests of the neighborhood residents. That may indeed mean providing space for screening films on Shabbos but not in a building on the seam of the haredi population center. If tomorrow all the haredi residents decide to move out and the secular want films all day on Shabbat so be it. But if the secular continue selling or renting to haredim for big profits, they must understand that they are the ones changing the neighborhood dynamics and you can’t have your cake and eat it. Mr Levy clearly cannot see that and this is the reason he must go.
So #1, “the population of Kiryat HaYovel has and is changing”. So what? Those who were there before the new comers arrived had a standard of living, expectations, routines and so forth which should never have to be impacted just because others move into the area. The inevitable consequence of your position is that “others” (and in this case it means religious or Hareidi) will never be welcome anywhere. If one does not wish to have seculars complain that the “eruv” (or whatever) offends them, then one should not start complaining about being offended by the secular.
Two groups of people of different religious groups should be able to work out differences
Georgeg; according to your logic the Native Americans should be running the United States since they were here first!