This week in Jerusalem: A round-up of city affairs

Pisgat Ze'ev's new cultural institution has a 400-seat auditorium, space for workshops and courses, the only movie theater in that part of the capital.

By PEGGY CIDOR
A VIEW of the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, with the security barrier in the background (photo credit: HADAS PARUSH/FLASH90)
A VIEW of the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, with the security barrier in the background
(photo credit: HADAS PARUSH/FLASH90)
Pisgat Ze’ev and the arts
Amid what seems to be the second wave of coronavirus, the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood inaugurated earlier this week the brand-new Palace of Culture, built at a cost of NIS 40 million. As described in this issue’s cover story by Barry Davis, the new cultural institution – which will serve the city’s northern neighborhoods – has a 400-seat auditorium, space for workshops and courses, and the only movie theater in that part of the capital.
Pisgat Ze’ev has some 40,000 residents and together with the nearby Neveh Ya’acov and Ramot neighborhoods, the area is inhabited by some 120,000 Jerusalemites – who will have now the opportunity to enjoy a play, concert or film screening without having to fight traffic into the city center.
Pisgat Ze’ev and reality
The local commission on violence prevention had to deal earlier this week with a serious problem that Pisgat Ze’ev has been facing for a long time – namely, random shooting from the surrounding Arab neighborhoods and the tragic consequences.
Ronen Ben Yair, a member of the neighborhood’s local council, declared to commission members that for months, residents have been exposed to an unbearable daily reality, with their children and even toddlers being shot at from area Arab neighborhoods, whether as part of wedding festivities or otherwise. Even Yehuda Freudinger (Bayit Yehudi), head of the commission and himself a resident of the neighborhood, contributed his own experience in the matter. According to commission findings, no fewer than 10 cases of shootings close to neighborhood home occurred from this past January to May. The commission resolutions aimed to call on the police to act – including search and confiscation of guns and ammunition and to put an end to this hazardous situation.
 
Fighting coronavirus in the streets
As of this week, more supervisors checking residents for mask-wearing will be seen in city streets. This is in addition to police involvement, as the municipality has decided to add its own supervisors to fight in the war against coronavirus. The supervisors will give tickets to residents and visitors who are not wearing masks, not observing the mandatory social distance of two meters, or worse, are caught crowding against Health Ministry rules.
Such a case happened last week when supervisors at the entrance to Mahaneh Yehuda, tasked with taking temperatures and checking masks, halted a woman who wasn’t wearing a mask and who then refused to stop and disclose her identity. She was detained for about an hour by police and released a short while later.
As for people in the city center and every shopping center, the rules go according to the “Purple Tag,” which includes no crowding, wearing masks and keeping distance. Businesses that do not keep the rules might be exposed to a lockdown by the authorities. Sources at Safra Square say these danger-halting measures are motivated by concerns of a pandemic rebound, which might be fatal for the city’s economy that is only now sputtering back to life.
Mea She’arim burns again
Hundreds of protesters blocked Shabbat Square at the junction between Geula and Mea She’arim streets on Sunday evening, protesting the arrest of an activist from the neighborhood. Benyamin Friedman is accused of having attacked a policewoman two months ago, and is still detained. Friedman – an activist originally from Mea She’arim who moved to Beit Shemesh, and is married and the father of five – was among the haredim who violently opposed actions by local police and Home Front Command soldiers (both male and female) to impose the quarantine inside their neighborhood.
Once arrested, Friedman found himself in a prison cell with a TV (something he refuses to watch) and refused to step inside. As a result, he was chained by prison guards to a bed in that cell. Since then, he has been totally disconnected from his family and community – hence the sporadic protests in his native neighborhood for his release.
City councilmen from the haredi sector then tried in the first weeks of the epidemic to obtain permission from the Jerusalem chief of police for haredi community members to explain Health Ministry rules to the community at large, instead of the use of security forces, but to no avail. According to sources inside the sector, Friedman is not the only haredi whose case motivates continual violent protests in Mea She’arim.
Different strokes
To mark the end of Pride month, this past Sunday several hundred people attended a more corona-friendly assembly replacing the regular Pride Parade.
Lehava activist Moshe Ben Zikri was preventively detained out of concern he might become violent; Bentzi Gopstein (Lehava) and one of his sons were allowed to protest at the beginning of the assembly for a short time. By the end of the assembly, the police arrested 27 people, mostly youths identified with Lehava.
Blue and White ministers Yoaz Handel and Izhar Yishai spoke at the assembly with young religious members of the LBGTQ community regarding their needs and concerns.
Later on Jaffa Road, youths identified as Lehava members allegedly attacked a gay couple walking with an LGBTQ flag. A youth was injured by a member of the gay couple in what was described as an act of self-defense.
At a government meeting the following morning, Handel spoke about the assembly and his discussions there. Haredi party representatives sent letters to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz protesting the mention of the assembly and its content at the government meeting.
On a related note, a transgender Jerusalemite submitted a complaint to the municipality several days before, as two municipal sanitation workers insulted her appearance. The two were identified and disciplined, and the municipality apologized.
Quelling quarrels at Shas
Major drama is shaking the Sephardi haredi party at city council. Things have reached such a boiling point that Shas leader and Interior Minister Arieh Deri has ordered his son-in-law, Ronni Dahan, to leave Safra Square, even though he is the one who sent Dahan to organize and manage the list.
Dahan, considered a rising star in Shas, was dispatched to reduce tensions between the five members of the list at city council that led to changing the locks of Dahan’s office two weeks ago. Dahan is moving to a higher position in the national party, but the local list is still drowning in its own battles, reducing its effectiveness at city council.
“As they wage wars over honor and respect, the Sephardi sector is suffering,” said an assistant of one of the city councilmen.
Most of the problems are linked to the stormy relationship between two list members holding the title of deputy mayor: Zvika Cohen and Avraham Bezalel. Dahan’s mission was to establish peace between the two so they could better achieve their sector’s needs in terms of education, religious institutions, etc.
“Our Ashkenazi brethren know how to put aside their personal rivalries and work for their constituency, but among Shas, it’s much more about issues of personal honor,” observed the source.
Dahan succeeded in bringing five seats to Shas in the 2018 elections when most of the polls predicted a wipeout, but now he is leaving. Shas sources say that if nothing else helps, Deri himself may pay a visit to the list members to bring some order. 
Cable car project at court
The High Court of Justice held a debate on Monday on the Jerusalem cable car project, following a petition submitted by Emek Shaveh, Adam Teva V’Din, residents of Silwan and the Karaite community. The judges also inquired about the connection between the project and the Ir David Foundation’s Kedem Center, next to which the final station would be built.
Representatives of the Karaite Jews, whose thousand-year-old cemetery is located underneath the planned route, argued that the plan would destroy the cemetery, comparing it to “eating pork at a Jewish Orthodox graveyard.” But much of the focus was on whether the plan is a tourism venture or a transportation project. The plan was fast-tracked through the National Infrastructure Committee by the Tourism Ministry as a tourism project, yet its promoters have been referring to it as a much-needed solution for the transportation challenges to the Old City.
The decision of the court is pending. Finance Ministry sources mentioned a few weeks ago that due to the economic crisis caused by corona, and considering the blow to Jerusalem tourism for an indefinite period, the government might be interested in finding ways to avoid implementing this project.
Mad at Mahaneh Yehuda
A growing number of residents of the shuk, especially seniors, are fuming over the municipality’s project of turning some area streets into pedestrian malls open late into the night. Blocked parking spots, noise and smoke from the restaurants have turned their lives into a nightmare. “My parents have the choice of remaining locked down in their home or having to wait until 11 p.m. to park their car in their private parking in the neighborhood,” complained one woman who lives near Mahaneh Yehuda. Many such complaints have been heard by the local neighborhood council, and despite a visit by high-ranking welfare officials, no solutions have been found thus far.
Meanwhile, the tension between the president of the shuk’s merchants’ association, Tali Friedman, and the chair of the local council, Ofir Lang, has ended with Lang submitting a lawsuit to the court. Lang believes that despite good intentions – like helping merchants and nightlife venue owners get through the COVID-19 crisis – decisions and projects are not being seriously planned and checked before they are implemented. One such example: The new parking regulations at the former Shaare Tzedek building near the shuk. The municipality announced that the first two hours would be free upon providing a receipt of NIS 100 or more spent at the shuk. The only problem is that no vegetable or fruit merchant will provide such a receipt, and moreover, the municipality already gives one hour of free parking in the city center without requiring any proof of purchase.


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