J'lem candidates skip signing of environmental pledge

Three main mayoral candidates fail to sign petition on the environment by an Israeli green group.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
MK Meir Porush 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
MK Meir Porush 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski )
Jerusalem has been highlighted in polls as one of the country's prettiest cities, but its three main mayoral candidates were unable to find time Tuesday to sign a petition on the environment by an Israeli green group. The environmental pledge, organized by the Council for a Beautiful Israel, was signed by dozens of mayoral candidates in other cities. Jerusalem was the only city in which it was not signed, the organization said. "It is sad that specifically in our capital, Jerusalem, a city which is defined by many environmental challenges... the candidates could not find the time to commit themselves to improve the quality of life in the city," said Weitzman Mashiach, the organization's deputy director, in a written statement. "We are convinced that environmental issues are more important to the Jerusalem public than the issues which are keeping the candidates busy," he said. The three main mayoral candidates all cited last-minute notification of the event and scheduling problems as reasons for their no-shows. Jerusalem opposition leader Nir Barkat noted that he had placed the former director of the Jerusalem branch of the Society for the Protection of Nature - which has been at the forefront of environmental struggles in the city - in the third slot of his party list. A spokesman for MK Meir Porush said that his commitment to the environment had begun in his first day of public service in the city, when he requested to be charged with such a portfolio, and not from "a signing ceremony of one type or another." A spokesman for Russian-Israeli tycoon Arkadi Gaydamak said that Gaydamak would have liked to come to the event, but that he had received notice of it only one day in advance, and organizers had refused to delay the ceremony by even a few hours.