When representatives, whether at city council or at local councils, work with engaged residents, the best is just around the corner.
By PEGGY CIDORLone soldiers snap a selfie with MK Ayelet Shaked(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
A year and a half of local civil struggle ended on Monday, with a unanimous decision of the city finance committee to sign a contract with the owner of a property in Beit Hakerem to be used as a home for lone soldiers.A priori, this sounds like a simple procedure, one that any city in the country would have promoted, but in this particular case, this decision holds a very significant message regarding the importance of a public struggle. An unusual but very fruitful collaboration between dedicated activist residents and two of their representatives at city council provided a clear and important success, to the benefit of many.Somewhere in 2019, a group of Beit Hakerem residents accidentally discovered that a structure that hadn’t been used for a while was undergoing some extended renovation work. The curiosity to learn what and who was behind this renovation project led to the discovery of what was to come – an issue that would reach the highest ranks at Safra Square – namely mayor Moshe Lion – in his very first days in the position.The private entrepreneurs tried very hard to hide the real nature of the project, but here again – a bunch of very alert residents and neighbors found out quite soon what it was really about, and launched a stubborn struggle against its implementation. The entrepreneurs had planned to install a maternity clinic and recovery home for the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector. Considering that Beit Hakerem is a secular neighborhood, although many religious families do live there – the plan to open such a facility for haredi women in a secular environment was immediately seen as an attempt to install haredi residents into the neighborhood.The whole project caused some headache to the city leadership – one should not forget that Lion’s coalition depends on his haredi allies. Hence, the municipality focused on procedural issues, without expressing any official position on the heart of the matter – namely the opposition of the residents of Beit Hakerem, who had by then largely mobilized against the project – like the misuse of the permits against the rules of the construction administration.Two representatives led the struggle, Laura Wharton and Yossi Havilio, both of them members of Lion’s coalition and representing the secular population, and were backed up by the growing number of engaged residents until its recent success. In this particular case, the struggle managed not only to prevent an outsider institution from taking root in the neighborhood, it went much further, as the city council has agreed to use the structure for a local and worthy project – a home for lone soldiers.This affair illustrates in the best way possible the importance of public action led by engaged and involved residents working closely with their representatives at city council. This is what it means to be involved, to act for the community and to be engaged in public struggles. In this particular case, it was focused on the concern that greedy private entrepreneurs were planning to promote a profitable project without taking into consideration the character of the pluralist neighborhood, keeping a fragile balance between the secular, traditionalist and religious – but not haredi – residents that compose its mosaic.But that should be the framework of any struggle to improve the quality of life of any neighborhood in the city – the haredi sector absolutely included. With just a few weeks left until the elections for the local councils in eight neighborhoods, this is exactly the message that should be spread, and the residents of Beit Hakerem showed it in this particular affair. Vigilance, engagement, involvement and dedication to prevent unwanted changes, or on the contrary, to promote requested new projects, are the best keys to reach these aims. When representatives, whether at city council or at local councils, work with engaged residents, the best is just around the corner.
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