By PEGGY CIDORJerusalem's Old City 521(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)Shake-up at Safra SquareA decade ago, corruption that led to illegal construction procedures ended with the tragic event of the Versailles Hall in which 23 wedding guests were killed and more than 300 injured when a floor collapsed.Now it seems that at the municipality’s construction permits department, history is rearing its ugly head. A large-scale scandal of false construction permits – and thus illegal and potentially dangerous – has recently been revealed, linked to illegal construction in Ein Kerem. So far, most aspects of this affair are still not clear, but the police have already opened an investigation into the construction permits department, and two employees have been arrested for five days to allow for further inquiries.It all started with a request to the police by the Israel Lands Authority to investigate a forged permit to build on the plot of the Lebanese restaurant in Ein Kerem, which is owned by the ILA. The investigation by the police department’s Special Economics Affairs Unit has raised suspicion of forged construction permits, files and signatures, apparently submitted by high-ranking employees of the municipal construction permits department.Some of the files are connected to other large construction projects in the city, and all of that is under further investigation by the police, who are still trying to figure out if things were done on a serial basis or are separate cases that have no connection to each other. Several officials at Safra Square have expressed concern that this might lead to another scandal the magnitude of the Holyland affair. Probably more to come soon.If you can’t beat them, boycott them! The Balabasta event in the Mahaneh Yehuda market area has been the subject of much controversy this year. The merchants were against it (“people don’t come to buy”), but the municipality was adamant to run it. Along the way, the haredi representatives on the city council, out of a seemingly sudden concern for the interests of the merchants, joined them in their opposition. But in the end, Mayor Nir Barkat managed to reach an agreement, albeit a partial one.This year Balabasta will take place only three times this summer (instead of twice a week like last year) and only during August. But then, just when each side involved thought that it had won, a third factor intervened and perhaps changed the course of things.The rabbis – the spiritual leaders of the haredi community – issued a strict decree forbidding their members to participate in the event in any way. To ensure that there will not be any misunderstanding, haredim have been required to complete all their shopping in the shuk by 5 p.m. so they won’t, even by accident, see the performers. In a series of posters put up in the haredi neighborhoods and around Mahaneh Yehuda, Balabasta was depicted as a patently promiscuous event, one that no modest and observant Jew should dare take part in.So now that the haredim will not attend (in principle – it remains to be seen how many of them will resist the temptation to spend a couple of hours offering their children some free entertainment) and a large majority of the merchants will – according to sources in their association – simply close their shops early, it is not clear who will get to enjoy the event, which costs about NIS 700,000 (a private donation by the Shusterman Foundation – not taxpayers’ money).The sound and the fury A peaceful resolution has been reached – so far, at least – to the long and emotionally charged opposition by the French Hill residents to the muezzin’s calls at night in the nearby neighborhood of Isawiya.For years, the (Jewish) residents of the northern neighborhood of French Hill have suffered from hearing the loud calls to prayer at the mosque by the muezzin, which take place five times a day. While during the daytime the calls don’t really bother them, lost as they are in the din of environmental noises, it creates a serious disturbance at night, with calls delivered loudly through the microphones of the mosque at around 4 a.m.Despite many attempts to reach some kind of agreement between the two sides, nothing has been achieved over the years. But recently, the Jewish residents of French Hill claim, the decibels of the microphones have been set even louder. Two weeks ago, a group of residents announced that they were going to set up powerful microphones on their roofs and would play Israeli music all night long so that not only would the Arab residents not have any rest, but the call of the muezzin would not be heard.The threat apparently did the trick, since just a few days after that, two meetings took place between representatives of the Arab neighborhood and the Jewish one, through the intermediary of the Jerusalem Association of Community Centers.The presidents of the respective neighborhoods – Yochanan Blacher from French Hill and Darwish Darwish from Isawiya – accompanied by the imam (spiritual authority) of the village’s mosque, Sammy Muhsein, met in the French Hill community center in the presence of a representative of the Jerusalem police and of the municipal security department, to find a solution. Darwish and Muhsein admitted that the early-morning call was a nuisance for the French Hill residents and agreed to lower the volume.Mind your mannersThe end of the academic year at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is always an exciting time for students and their teachers, as it provides an opportunity to show the public what has been achieved during the year at the prestigious school.This year, Bezalel presented a show that featured pieces by the Fashion and Jewelry Department’s graduates, followed by an extensive tour of the art, industrial design and visual and screen communication works. The exhibitions, rich in diversity and innovation, offered a unique opportunity to detect the first signs of artistic achievement among the students, particularly the intriguing works displayed in the industrial design wing.The festive end-of-year week was to culminate with an international symposium and an exhibition of the works of graduates and first-year students of the Architecture Department, the only department that is already back in the city center in the historical Bezalel building.Well, intentions are one thing, and reality – apparently as far as Bezalel is concerned – is another. The international symposium kicked off with a delay of an hour and a half (not that anyone thought to announce that there would be a delay). But even when it finally did start, the situation was far from improved. The person who was supposed to be the moderator was sick, and the man who replaced her didn’t have the courtesy to introduce himself. The microphones were not in their proper place, so it was difficult to make out large portions of the speakers’ presentations. And to top it all, the students kept coming in one by one (or two by two) during the symposium, talking and dragging their chairs across the floor. But then why should we accuse the students of having bad manners when the teachers of the academy, including the president himself, overlooked the fact that a basic common courtesy would be not to engage in conversation while a guest was speaking on stage?School shuffle suspended The plan was all set, the details clarified, the date was even agreed upon. A large-scale change of location for four educational institutions was scheduled to take place this summer, before the start of the next school year. Along the way, a community synagogue, which served national religious and Anglo olim in Ramat Eshkol, was planned to be used for one of the schools.It is still not clear what changed the course of the plan, but the municipal education administration (Manhi) decided to postpone it until next fall (autumn of 2013), if at all.Four schools were to be involved in the shuffle: the Djanogly morning and evening schools; the Zvia Art school – a religious girls’ schools; and the Alonim religious boys’ school. The original plan was to move Zvia from its location on the former Pardes campus in Ramat Eshkol to French Hill; to bring Djanogly junior high and high school from French Hill to Ramat Eshkol; and to add Alonim, which is situated in Givat Mordechai but lacks enough pupils, to Ramat Eshkol in the hope that it would get more pupils and thus prevent its closure.It turned out none of the institutions was very happy about the plans, not to mention the parents, who couldn’t understand why their children should have to commute from one neighborhood to another; and, of course, the members of the synagogue in Ramat Eshkol. A visit by the head of the municipality’s properties in the two neighborhoods, followed by a rethinking of the whole plan, ended in its cancellation – at least for another year.
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