By PEGGY CIDORArieh King campaigning at Mahaneh Yehuda. Does the city council owe its allegiance to its own aims or to its members’ voters?(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Hard timesThe city’s tourist industry has hit hard times. It seems that despite serious efforts by both the Jerusalem Development Authority and the municipality, the tourists – from abroad as well as locals – are not hurrying back to visit. For some hotel managers, the negative impact of last year’s riots and terror, followed by Operation Protective Edge, is still preventing Jerusalem from getting back to business as usual. According to the Jerusalem Hotels Association, in numerous luxurious establishments, the restaurants have shut down or at least reduced their hours to evenings only, and as a result have dismissed some of their employees – even though summer is usually the season requiring additional workers.While hotel accommodation in Israel in general and in Jerusalem in particular is among the most expensive internationally according to tourist operators, some hotel managers say that even lowering prices as part of the campaign to encourage Jerusalem tourism has not succeeded in improving the situation. That said, according to the JDA, there has been an increase of 15 percent in Jerusalem hotel stays since the beginning of the summer – but this figure includes visitors from within the country, and not from abroad.For now, most of the focus is on the approaching High Holy Days, but some hotel managers fear that even this period may not bring the expected change for the better, considering the violence that occurred in the capital last month.Not in the name of TorahOn his weekly Internet radio program on Sunday, former Sephardi chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron had harsh words for the murderers of Shira Banki – who was stabbed during the city’s Gay Pride Parade – and Sa’ad and Ali Dawabsha, the Palestinian father and son killed in an arson attack in Duma. Echoing the immediate public announcement by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef condemning Pride Parade attacker Yishai Schlissel, he declared that such acts harmed the Jewish people and could not be considered to have been done in the name of the Torah.He even suggested that the attackers might have the halachic status of a rodef – one who intends to kill someone and therefore may be killed under Jewish law (provided there are no other options) to prevent their doing so – because their actions endanger the safety of the entire Jewish nation.Both spiritual leaders added that the attackers in the two cases should be arrested and prevented from continuing their assaults.The rabbis’ position did not prevent the police from securing the daily gatherings that took place in Zion Square throughout the week following Banki’s death, and forbidding haredi men to join on the grounds that they might be dangerous and attack the participating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community members.Under the mountainCity councilman Arieh King (United Jerusalem) is against next week’s Under the Mount Festival, which is part of the Jerusalem Season of Culture.The mount in question the Temple Mount, and King says that some parts of the festival’s cultural events desecrate the sanctity of the holy site. King has announced he will do his utmost to prevent the event. He has published a detailed list of the sponsors (mostly private foundations and donors from abroad), and asked those who agree with him to call on the sponsors to withdraw their donations.Meanwhile, King has declared he will take it upon himself to convince those responsible at the municipality – which also funds the festival – at least to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to the Season of Culture, which he has characterized as an “extremist Left, anti-Israel association.”Demography through artThe Barbour Gallery, located near Mahaneh Yehuda, opened a new exhibition this week. “37%” was launched by Ir Amim, an NGO aimed at “rendering Jerusalem a more equitable and sustainable city” for the Israelis and Arabs who share it and focusing on daily life in the city’s east side.The exhibition’s title refers to the Arabs who comprise 37 percent of Jerusalem’s population, and includes photos by Haaretz photographer Tomer Appelbaum of Arab residents from all parts of the capital, from young adults who do daily parkour (the sport of rapid movement in an urban environment, negotiating obstacles by running, jumping, and climbing) on the roofs of the Old City, to street beggars, taxi drivers and a whole gallery of people set in their usual environment. The exhibition also has a website, in which the persons depicted in the photos tell their stories and their experiences as Jerusalemites.The opening hosted poet and activist Almog Behar in conversation with Palestinian Culture Museum founder and director Khaled Khatib on the topics of Jerusalem, the arts, politics and life in between. Khatib then addressed the large audience inside the gallery and the surrounding garden, inviting Israelis to take action to improve life in east Jerusalem – and better the situation for all sides.
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