Campaign posters sully public property ahead of local elections, environmentalists lament

'Candidates wave around their green agenda' while doing the opposite

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
As municipal elections approach, candidates have become more indiscriminate in putting up campaign posters on public property, the Council for a Beautiful Israel announced Wednesday. The council has deployed its volunteers to monitor local campaigns across the country since the beginning of September. Municipal elections will be held on November 11 across the country. Volunteers travel around the country with cameras documenting violations. Every two weeks the council puts out an update. In the last two-week period, the council said, there has been a sharp rise in candidates' propaganda hung on public property such as trees, bridges, electricity poles, and fences. Moreover, rival campaign posters have been torn down and found strewn across public land rather than being thrown into the garbage. The Council for a Beautiful Israel's COO, Weizman Mashiah, pointed out that the indifference now did not bode well for the future. "It is sad to see that as we get closer to local elections the candidates have forgotten one of the most important principles in running any local authority - protecting the environment. It is not enough that we have encountered signs and posters which have been hung in public areas and have caused their destruction; we are witnessing the destruction of rival campaign posters and their being tossed in the street, in public parks, and other public places. "It is inconceivable that on the one hand the candidates will wave around their green agendas while on the other hand in reality they are not fulfilling the promises and slogans they made to the public in their cities. The candidates must understand that public spaces are not their private property and that the trees and fences of their city are not their propaganda table," Mashiah said in a statement. The council also published a list of the most egregious offenders over the last two weeks. Posters for Oren Shachor, who is running for mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, were found hanging on public flora. A poster for Dov Tsur, who is running for mayor of Rishon Lezion, was documented on the column of a bridge across the Rishon Lezion junction. Also in Rishon, posters for Deputy Mayor Asaf Daabul, who is running for mayor, were found on a public fence. In Hadera, campaign signs for the "Youngsters" list were hung on a public fence near the Hadera mall. And in Herzliya, the "Religious Union" list and the "Herzliya for its citizens" list attempted to capture the attention of drivers by erecting posters on a public fence along Sderot Jerusalem between Herzliya and Ra'anana. The Kadima Ra'anana list did the same thing. The office of the national inspector for local elections told The Jerusalem Post responsibility for dealing with the issue lay with the Elections Committee. An Elections Committee representative could not be reached by press time.