Mahaneh Yehuda shuk goes to ballot to elect new committee and chairman

The first and major task of the next Mahaneh Yehuda chairman will be to restore balance.

By PEGGY CIDOR
A man is seen buying produce at one of the vendors at the Mahaneh Yehuda shuk in Jerusalem. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A man is seen buying produce at one of the vendors at the Mahaneh Yehuda shuk in Jerusalem.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
On September 8, the merchants of the iconic Mahaneh Yehuda shuk will cast their ballots for the first time in a decade to elect a new committee to represent their needs and activities in coordination with the Jerusalem Municipality.
Until this past Monday, there were three candidates officially running for the position of committee chairman and 24 candidates – more than ever before – are running for the eight board positions. The candidates represent all the parties involved: merchants and nightlife business owners, 600 of whom have the right to vote.
The three candidates for the chairmanship are:
• Tali Friedman, acting chairwomen of the committee, appointed by Mayor Moshe Lion about a year ago to prepare the elections;
• Yehuda Aharon, representing the traditional shuk merchants; and
• Yehuda Ohayon, representing the nightlife owners.
But on Monday afternoon, an unexpected new candidate stormed the relatively calm campaign. Nino Peretz, until two years ago the powerful chairman of the shuk committee, suddenly announced his desire to run. Registration for candidates was closed on August 20, so it is not certain that Justice Emeritus Shulamit Dotan., president of the elections commission, will allow Peretz to join at this late date. But regardless, this step means there is significant opposition to Friedman, considered by many at the shuk to be a puppet in the hands of Mayor Lion.
Friedman remains so strongly favored to win that some say the only unknown is the rate of election participation. She not only enjoys the official support of Lion but also appears to attract consensus approval from both sides of the shuk’s divide: the nightlife owners and the vegetable and fruit merchants. However, sources among the veteran merchants say that nothing is final and point out that behind these elections, which seem to deal with local issues of a market, are tremendous political interests – between the partisans of Lion and those who still support former mayor Nir Barkat.  
All three candidates seek to restore the status of the actual market at the heart of Mahaneh Yehuda, which has been diminished by both nightlife and corona. Friedman envisions a balance between the nightlife and the traditional market, which has been problematic over the past few years, causing anger among: 1) nearby residents, 2) traditional market merchants selling the produce, meat and fish available there since time immemorial, and 3) the haredi sector: neighbors and their representatives at city council, fuming over what they consider a licentious atmosphere and threatening repeatedly to legislate the closure of the whole market.
The first and major task of the next Mahaneh Yehuda chairman will be to restore this balance, to see that the municipality and police enforce the hours of entertainment, oversee the volume of music at night, and above all put an end to the sale of alcohol to teenagers. Too often, these teens end the night drunk, easy prey for criminals, drug dealers, prostitution and the like.
Uri Amedi – the legendary director of the Lev Ha’ir local council that includes the market area, and the man who championed the market as a place for business and culture – was a key actor behind the scenes in advancing these elections. He believes it is time to give Mahaneh Yehuda a new boost, especially in light of the damage wrought by the pandemic.


Related Tags
Mahane Yehuda