Jerusalemites unite

"Yerushalmim" and "Wake Up Jerusalem," announce their decision to run in a joint list.

By PEGGY CIDOR
Following several meetings between the heads of the two lists "Yerushalmim" and "Wake Up Jerusalem," on Monday morning Rachel Azaria Fraenkel and Ofer Berkovitch announced their decision to run in a joint list "Wake Up Yerushalmim." At a press conference, Azaria Fraenkel and Berkovitch explained that despite representing different residents, they decided to run together after realizing that the two lists shared "the same idealistic goal: to serve the city and its residents." The two exchanged compliments throughout the meeting with the press, focusing on their common sense of duty for the city, their absence of personal political aspirations and their shared hope to bring about a radical change in city council. "We represent different circles," said Berkovitch. "We at 'Wake Up Jerusalem' are close to the youth and students. Through Rachel we met liberal, religious, young couples and families. But the bottom line is the same: A deep care and concern for the benefit of the residents of this city, completely unconnected to the political agendas on the national level. "We offer something that can be shared by people with different political opinions," he continued. "We don't want to be tied to any political party that could force us to vote according to a national interest that doesn't exactly fit our local interests as residents of Jerusalem." Azaria Fraenkel and Berkovitch agreed that they would not call on their voters to vote for any specific candidate. "We are open to any serious and honest offer for participating in the coalition as long as the issues that matter to us are assured," Azaria Fraenkel said. Last but not least, both announced that if one of them is selected as deputy mayor, s/he will use only a part of the monthly salary (NIS 43,000) and hand over the rest to city council members of the list. As part of a rotation agreement, Azaria Fraenkel and Berkovitch will each serve half a term, or 2.5 years. Both sounded confident that their party would secure more than one seat. • Arieh Hess, who was the main power behind the creation of a Green list to the city council, has been expelled from the national Green Party. The reason: the party didn't approve of his initiative to replace the head of the list, Dalia Zommer, with the head of the teachers' list, Yoram Levy, and sent him a letter stating that his membership in the party "has ended as of September 22 at midnight." Levy announced that he was very sorry to hear about the decision, which he respects. From now on, there will be only one Green list, headed by Zommer and focused only on green issues. • The taxi drivers' list has merged with mayoral candidate Arkadi Gaydamak's list to the city council. Meanwhile, at the Russian oligarch's headquarters, a decision has been made to stop giving interviews to the press and focus on the campaign slogan: "Doing, not talking." • Rabbi Shmuel Yitzhaki, the long-time vocal oppositionist on the Shas list at city council, has finally decided to run for another term. Yitzhaki, a bit of an outsider who has never hesitated to criticize his own party, especially on the issue of Sephardi girls not accepted by Ashkenazi haredi education institutions, has more than once announced that he wants to focus on studying and working for the community, but finally accepted to serve another five years. • In a meeting with the heads and members of the local branch of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, mayoral candidate Meir Porush assured the audience that he would be "dedicated to protecting nature and the environment" if elected. Porush added that his positions on the Safdie Plan to develop the hills west of Jerusalem were "well known. I am against it, period," but nevertheless added that if the plan were the only way to prevent an additional drop in the Jewish population of the city, then "we will all have to be more flexible, and still protect nature." • A new list registered this week for the city council: Kol Hapisga (Voice of Pisgat Ze'ev), headed by Yael Antebi, editor-in-chief of the local newspaper by the same name. Among the many issues the new list wishes to address are the traffic jams in Pisgat Ze'ev and the dirt in the neighborhood's streets.