As a result of the demand of the chareidi and religious representatives on the Jerusalem city council led by the United Torah Jewry and Shas parties, it was decided this past Monday in the municipality to disperse the present management of the Yovlim Community Center in Kiryat Yovel and to hold elections for a new administration within ninety days.
The community centers are locally powerful organizations set up to provide services to the neighborhood in which they are located. They have a regular budget and a lot of autonomy. In theory they are supposed to be in closer contact with the local community than city hall can be, but in practice this is not always the case. Elections are held infrequently, and often the same people stay in office for decades. In the case of neighborhoods whose composition has changed significantly, such as Ramot and Kiryat Yovel, the community centers sometimes work against the wishes of a significant minority or even a majority of the current residents.
The decision to fire the management in Kiryat Yovel was arrived at in the wake efforts on the part of the religious lobby in city hall. They drew up a petition signed by sixteen members which constitutes a majority of the municipal council representatives, responding to the shameful and abusive act which said management made in showing movies on Shabbos. This was in provocative defiance of the religious status quo which obligates the Jerusalem municipality to honor its coalitionary agreements, and in total opposition to the city administration and even the mayor's stand on this religious policy.
In their petition, the city representatives asked that no money be transferred to the Kiryat Yovel community center from any of the various city divisions until that administration is dismantled. Similarly no allocation shall be given to any municipal body or branch anywhere which is mechalel Shabbos. In the wake of this united stand, the mayor, Nir Barkat, held several meetings in his office with the heads of the religious and chareidi parties in which they voiced their vehement outcry, against the showing of movies in the Kiryat Yovel center. This act is considered to be extreme in its defiance of the central city government. How is conceivable that Shabbos be blatantly violated in a municipal establishment by a body which is an arm of the city municipality? The protest also applies to the proliferation of similar desecrations of Shabbos throughout the city.
In a meeting held this past Monday in the mayor's office, it was decided to dismantle the present administration of the Kiryat Yovel center and to hold elections within a mere ninety days. At that same meeting, it was also decided to hold elections in other community centers where elections have not been held in the past 4-5 years. The administrators of the relevant centers have been summoned for a meeting on Wednesday for an organized decision on the matter before it is brought for approval before the City Council, as was discussed.
It was also decided that a special committee be established to determine and define the rules for maintaining a status quo regarding all matters pertaining to Shabbos observance. The regulations established by this committee shall obligate the mayor, the city administration and all municipal bodies, and all other bodies receiving municipal allocations.
