This week in Jerusalem; A round-up of city affairs
What has been going on in Israel's capital this week?
By PEGGY CIDORIsraelis, wearing face masks for fear of the coronavirus, shop for grocery at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem on July 14, 2020. Israel has seen a spike of new COVID-19 cases bringing the authorities to reimpose restrictions to halt the spread of the virus(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)All shuk upLess than a week after she won the election for head of the Mahane Yehuda market’s committee, Tali Friedman had to face her first challenge – with the news that the nationwide lockdown would include the shuk.Friedman won the election with a large majority of 241 votes out of the 281 cast last Tuesday. Her two rivals obtained 14 and 22 votes, making Friedman the official chairwoman of the merchants’ committee after a year of serving as a temporary replacement in the post.Friedman has a long list of tasks she started compiling this past year, but the looming second lockdown has revived bad memories from Passover, when the shuk was shut down during a peak economic period. Thus her first step was to send an urgent letter to the prime minister, urging him to exclude Mahane Yehuda from the list of businesses to be shut down as of today (September 18). Her efforts bore fruit as with the backing of Mayor Moshe Lion, she managed to convince coronavirus czar Roni Gamzu to keep the market open.During the first lockdown, the decision to enforce the market closure aroused a lot of anger and frustration among merchants, with the month-long shutdown causing significant economic difficulty. Friedman maintains there is no logic in closing the open-air shuk, where risks of contamination are low.The major long-term challenge Friedman faces will involve finding the fragile but necessary balance between the traditional day market and nightlife, an issue that has been highly contested over the past few years. Between local residents’ quality-of-life needs; the lure of nightlife, offering tourists and locals trendy bars and restaurants; and the concerns of produce merchants, who struggle to sell their wares despite the changes in the shuk’s atmosphere, Friedman and her newly elected board have a lot of work ahead of them.For now, the focus is on saving the shuk in the pandemic period – and Friedman has the committed support of Mayor Lion and the merchants who wish to protect this special place.
Related TagsshukMahane Yehuda
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