THIS WEEK IN JERUSALEM: PEGGY CIDOR’S ROUND-UP OF CITY AFFAIRS

Seven members of the city council opposition Hitorerut Party, led by Ofer Berkovitch, have asked the city’s legal adviser to instruct Mayor Moshe Lion to publicly announce that he has not issued an order to impede contacts between them and civil servants and officials. While Lion has never issued such a prohibition publicly, nor is there any written evidence that he has done so, he has also not publicly announced that he supports robust contact.

While Lion has never issued such a prohibition publicly, nor is there any written evidence that he has done so, he has also not publicly announced that he supports robust contact.

As a result, Berkovitch and his list members feel they are trapped in an ambiguous situation, hence, their open letter to adv. Eli Malka. They request that he officially endorse their unfettered right to interact freely and openly with officials at Safra Square to fulfil their role to investigate whether things are being done properly and lawfully. 

The municipality is developing a few new options for dealing with the serious lack of parking in the city center. New proposals include 1) narrowing sidewalks to make room for more parking; 2) allowing parking on large sidewalks that will not be narrowed; 3) legislating that all contractors building in the city must also build parking lots; and 4) converting empty plots for parking along the main streets in the city center.

The proposal to forbid parking in the city center to encourage increased use of the light rail has been rejected, at least for now, by coalition member Yossi Havilio, who holds the public transportation and traffic portfolio in the city. He argues that as long as there are not enough light rail lines, the automobile-driving public cannot be punished. 

Fashkevilim (posted announcements) have appeared in Mea She’arim and Geula calling to organize a pulsa de nura (lashes of fire) kabbalistic ritual to punish haredi MKs who enter the government coalition and make compromises on the conscription law.

Radical haredim strongly oppose enrollment of young haredim into the IDF. Some of the MKs of the haredi lists are former members of the city council and might even be neighbors of those who are posting these announcements.

The Mikro theater is launching its new production next week – a play based of Josephus Flavius’s landmark history The Jewish War, adapted for the stage by theater founder and director Irena Goralik.

This is the first theatrical adaptation of the 2,000-year-old classic book, which has been a seminal source for understanding and tracking the history of the Jewish people during the Roman era. 

The Mikro theater group is staging a series of original plays at the Jerusalem Theater, mostly written by its own directors and playwriters, to bring Jewish historical and cultural themes to life with modern theatrics. 

Opens May 28. Tickets (NIS 70 to NIS 140) and info: (02) 560-5755.