Jerusalem City Council member Yitzhak Pindros sent a scathing letter to Mayor Nir Barkat, protesting the postponement of the elections for the 'Yuvalim' community administration. This comes after it was learned over the weekend that the 'Yuvalim' community administration had decided to postpone the elections until June 2015.
In the Kiryat Yuval neighborhood, as in other neighborhoods in the city, a significant demographic change has occurred, with hundreds of ultra-Orthodox families moving to live in the neighborhood over the past decade, in an attempt to solve the severe housing shortage suffered by mainly young ultra-Orthodox couples. This trend is frowned upon by other groups in the neighborhood, who have made it their goal to push the ultra-Orthodox residents out of the way, by various means, while trampling on their basic rights.
In his letter to the mayor, Yitzhak Pindros emphasizes that "this is a blatant violation of the rules of proper administration, in light of the fact that the election date was supposed to be in October of this year." He also quotes a section of the election regulations for the management of a community administration that states: "The interim management will serve for a period not exceeding two years from the date of its appointment or until a new management is elected in elections to be held in the area, whichever comes first," and requests that the scandalous decision to postpone the elections for an additional ten months be overturned based on this section.
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Yitzhak Pindros adds in his letter to the mayor that any further postponement of the elections for the 'Yuvalim' community administration is a disrespect for the values of democracy and constitutes a serious violation of the more than a thousand families who are under the control of a hostile community administrator, who is doing everything in his power to hinder the ultra-Orthodox residents of the neighborhood and is abusing them in every way. He wishes to remind the mayor that the members of the community administration, most of whom are members of 'Free Kiryat Yuval', consistently refuse to provide services to the ultra-Orthodox and national religious residents, while for services funded by the municipality they refuse to accept the money, so that they can turn a blind eye to the needs of the residents.
At the same time, Yitzhak Pindros is asking Mayor Nir Barkat to order the cessation of funding for the community administration until the actual elections are held, in order to prevent the continued discrimination of about a thousand Haredi families, as well as national-religious families living in the Kiryat Yuval neighborhood.
At the end of his letter, Yitzhak Pindros addresses the mayor and states: "I am confident that you will not support this offensive move and will not allow yourself to be abused by the residents, but will join my firm demand to hold immediate elections for the 'Yuvalim' community administrator.".
Response from the Mayor's Office: ""The Jerusalem Municipality is conducting a learning process on the entire issue of neighborhood elections together with the community administrations and is preparing for another round next year. The goal of the process is to draw lessons, to ensure that the administrations do indeed represent all residents appropriately and that the dialogue will enable the advancement of the residents' needs in cooperation with the municipality.".
