Shai slams J'lem for doing little to help host the GA

Former IDF spokesman: Transformation of capital's population is a "tragedy."

By RUTHIE BLUM LEIBOWITZ
nachman shai 298.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
nachman shai 298.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Nachman Shai, who has spent the past year preparing for this month's United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Jerusalem, has launched a scathing attack on the host city for doing hardly anything to help toward the event. Former IDF spokesman Shai, 62, who this week announced that he will be competing for a place in the Kadima list for the next Knesset, has been planning the GA in his capacity as the UJC's senior vice president and director-general for external affairs. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post for a special GA supplement to be published next week, Shai, a resident of Mevasseret Zion, said he was not keen initially on having the GA in the capital at all. But he was overruled, he said, "because that's what everyone wanted." He said he lamented "what has happened to Jerusalem - two of whose major populations, the haredim and the Arabs, are not Zionist - a city that is the focus of Jews all over the world." Furthermore, he added, "it's poor and, unfortunately, ugly. It's a tragedy." Equally "tragic," he went on, is that "the Jerusalem Municipality hardly helped us, not like Tel Aviv, which told us we could have whatever assistance we needed. When such an important conference comes to Jerusalem, City Hall should be bending over backwards. The people attending this event are bringing in lots of money by staying in hotels, eating in restaurants and shopping. What is this city doing for them?" "The Jerusalem Municipality went out of its way to assist the conference planners in every possible way," insisted a city spokesman in response, adding: "The city was prevented from fulfilling some of Mr. Shai's financial demands because of well-known budget shortfalls." Shai noted that the GA - under the slogan "One People, One Destiny" - is one of three major events taking place at around the same time, bringing thousands of Diaspora activists here: a women's conference, the "Lions of Judah," in Tel Aviv, with 1,400 participants; the NextGen GA, with 800 American and Israeli participants; and the GA itself, with 3,000 participants. "All three are fully booked," he said. "Most of the participants have come here from the US expressly to attend. There were some cancellations, but that's not uncommon. Israel is clearly such an important place for these people, that they have come in spite of the financial crisis." He said the GA was devoting a plenary session to the financial crisis at which former finance minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer would be speaking. "Philanthropy will certainly be affected by what has been happening in global markets," said Shai. "I assume the effects are already being felt in the field, but it takes time for such effects to be assessable. We're talking about 600,000 donors - who give anywhere from $100 to $5 million - so it's hard to calculate the exact figures." Shai also took aim at some wealthy Israelis, who he said "haven't yet developed the awareness of how significant" their philanthropic contributions could be. "This would be the worst time to try to raise that awareness," he cautioned, however. "At present, people here are like snails curling up into their shells, so approaching them now for donations is impossible. What is needed for the long term are education and preparatory work, and that takes time." Shai said he hoped the GA would achieve "a strengthening of participants' attachment to Israel and the Jewish communities, as well as continued financial support. The idea is to provide them with an intellectual and emotional experience - touching head and heart."