Haredim are staunchly opposed to dividing the city because the vast majority of taxpayers in the city are not haredi, and a haredi-only city carved out of Beit Shemesh would be impoverished. Since their population grew to the point where bloc voting and election fraud could control the city elections, haredim have essentially looted the city, putting heavily disproportionate amounts of resources into haredi neighborhoods and projects while underfunding or blocking non-haredi projects and services.
Above: Rabbi Dov Lipman arguing with haredim who were harassing little Modern Orthodox schoolgirls in Beit Shemesh before his election to Knesset last year
We Can’t Live With You Any More: Non-Haredi Politicians Demand Beit Shemesh Be Divided Into Two Separate Municipalities, One Haredi, One Not
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Eight non-haredi members of the Beit Shemesh city council have reportedly written a preliminary proposal to divide the city into two separate municipalities – one haredi, one not.
Member of Knesset Rabbi Dov Lipman of the Yesh Atid Party, who lives in Beit Shemesh and who has been a strong opponent of the rapidly growing haredi extremism there despite the fact that he is himself haredi, gave the proposal to divide the city to Yesh Atid’s chairman, Finance Minister Yair Lapid yesterday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
For almost a decade, Beit Shemesh has been the epicenter of haredi extremism in Israel as increasing numbers of very extreme haredim from Jerusalem have moved to the bucolic bedroom suburb due to its affordable housing. But those haredim settled in or adjacent to neighborhoods of Modern Orthodox and secular Jews, and soon set about making life as uncomfortable as possible for their non-haredi neighbors in the hope of creating non-haredi flight from those areas.
Haredim have stoned women they deemed to be immodestly dressed – including a woman and her months-old baby – and have terrorized and harassed 8-year-old school girls, calling them whores, spitting on them and chasing them down the street away from their school, which is located in a building haredim want to take over.
The last local election in October 2013 was won by incumbent Mayor Moshe Abutbol of the Sefardi haredi Shas Party. But massive haredi voter fraud linked to Abutbol was uncovered by police during election day.
The courts overturned the election results and ordered new elections, which took place in March. Abutbol won by a narrow margin.
Eight of the nine members of the opposition now support dividing Beit Shemesh into two cities. Abutbol has refused to bring them into his coalition government and his administration has continued to delay building projects for non-haredim – who still make up the majority of the city’s residents.
After losing the election (and its re-vote), Eli Cohen, who ran against Abutbuol, and the leaders of all the non-haredi parties presented Abutbol with a proposal for joining Abutbol’s coalition.
The proposal stipulated several things:
1. Plans for expansion of the city would be revised to guarantee construction of homes non-haredim.
2. Neighborhood administrations would be set up and given their own budgets.
3. The administration for the historic Old Beit Shemesh neighborhood would be in the control of a non-haredi representative.
4. A cultural center, sports center and library – the construction of each has been repeatedly and extensively been delayed by Abutbol – would finally be completed and other municipal amenities would be funded.
Cohen and the other non-haredi political leaders emphasized they did not make any demands for administrative portfolios.
Even so, Abutbol allegedly ignored their offer and has not worked to include them in running the city in any way, and he has done nothing to further the building of the library and other non-haredi projects or fund other non-haredi amenities.
“We wanted to build a model for cooperation in this city, but it hasn’t happened. We weren’t the ones to build a separation wall in a school, it was the [Abutbol’s haredi-controlled] municipal administration [who did so], and it was the [haredi-controlled] municipal administration which refused to include the opposition in the running of the city,” Cohen told The Jerusalem Post, referring to the city’s last minute takeover of secular school in the city. The city’s haredi-controlled administrators gave half of the school to a haredi school that was short of classroom space and built a 10-foot high wall through the playground and other temporary walls inside the school to forcibly keep haredi students from seeing or having any contact with non-haredi children or teachers.
“We have set principles for cooperation, but they have been rejected. There is no option now but to divide the city, because there is a complete chasm in the perspective of how to run the city. The haredim are building a haredi city without care for the city’s diverse and multi-cultural nature,” Cohen concluded.
Lipman reportedly said the city’s non-haredi communities have not received basic service years. He noted Abutbol’s failure to build the cultural center, library, soccer field or city swimming pool, as well as the designation of “tens of thousands of housing units” for the haredi population only.
“As a resident of the city and one of the leaders in the battle against religious extremism in the city, I have come to the sad conclusion that the only way to save the city is to think out of the box. Given the direction which the city leadership has chosen, coexistence is not a possibility, and separate municipalities is the only way to insure that the city survives and that all residents have all of their needs met,” Lipman told the Post.
Haredim are staunchly opposed to dividing the city because the vast majority of taxpayers in the city are not haredi, and a haredi-only city carved out of Beit Shemesh would be impoverished.
In other words, since their population grew to the point where bloc voting and election fraud could control the city elections, haredim have essentially looted the city, putting heavily disproportionate amounts of resources into haredi neighborhoods and projects while underfunding or blocking non-haredi projects and services.
Abutbol has also repeatedly failed to remove haredi modesty signs ordering gender segregation on sidewalks and on buses, despite an order from the High Court of Justice ruling those signs illegal. He has also been refused to take any action to stop haredi extremist violence.
Abutbol’s spokesman reportedly did not reply to the Post’s request for comment.