Attorney Yossi Havilio threatens: If school is transferred to Haredim - we will go to court

July 25, 2017   

""Barkat divided Jerusalem," the cynics cried last week, after several media outlets published the secret agreement signed between the Jerusalem Torah Banner and the mayor. The division, which was intended to put an end to the constant tensions between the different populations in the city, and which is supposed to constitute a kind of status quo regarding the "Harediization" of secular neighborhoods, has angered many - including opposition members, who demanded that Barkat present the agreement openly since, according to them, these are agreements in preparation for elections, the publication of which is required by law. According to the agreement, no buildings will be allocated for schools for the Haredi residents of the mixed neighborhoods, most of whom are not Torah-observant and mitzvot, such as the Kiryat Yuval neighborhood; the Ramot neighborhood will be Harediized, but one of the Ramot neighborhoods will remain for seculars only, while neighborhoods like Neve Yaakov will continue to be Harediized. As part of the agreement, the state-religious school 'Brandt' in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood will be transferred to ultra-Orthodox hands, replacing the state-religious school currently operating there and serving the students of the area. In recent days, there has been a significant legal development, when Attorney Yossi Havilio, who previously served as the municipality's legal advisor, sent a warning letter to Mayor Nir Barkat and other parties. In the warning letter - which was obtained by Haredim 10 - Havilio writes that the state-religious school is the only school in the area that serves as a state education and, although it is religious, many who are not from religious families at all also study there. The warning letter shows that while in previous years there was a reduction in the number of students at the school, in recent years their number has increased, due to the Torah core that was established in the area with the encouragement of the Jerusalem Municipality. In the warning letter, the residents who "feel humiliated and betrayed" demand that the school's transfer be canceled or at least frozen in the coming year. At the end of the letter, Attorney Havilio clarifies that he expects a quick response - by this coming Sunday at 10:00 AM, and that if such a response is not received, he will be forced to take legal action. Against the municipality. "To the extent that our request is not answered as stated, my clients will be forced to resort to urgent legal proceedings," the letter said. It now remains to be seen how the new struggle will develop and whether it will affect the entire "partition agreement" initiated by Barkat and the municipal Torah banner.