Why is Bnei Brak urgently requesting approval for a loan of tens of millions?

December 26, 2023   

The Bnei Brak municipality is seeking to take out new loans that the residents of Bnei Brak will have to repay with interest - amounting to tens of millions of shekels. This is in addition to the millions of shekels the municipality recently received from government ministries for the purpose of assisting residents during the war. At an emergency city council meeting that Mayor Avraham Rubinstein and his deputy Hanoch Seibert requested to convene in the coming days - the city council is being asked to approve the loans. Yaakov Wieder, a member of the city council, sharply criticized the conduct and claimed: "Over the years, I have encountered a lot of decay in the Bnei Brak municipality, but I hoped that at least during the war the activists would restrain themselves a little. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I will do everything so that the residents of Bnei Brak receive a detailed explanation of what is being done with their money." In an urgent proposal to the council member, he writes: "In these difficult days, when the people of Israel are dealing with an extremely difficult war and economic difficulties - today I received an invitation to an emergency meeting of the city council where the activists are requesting to take out new loans that the residents of Bnei Brak will be forced to repay at compound interest - to the insane extent of more than one hundred million NIS!!!" Vider details the millions of shekels that the city council is required to approve - for unclear transfers for "cleaning shelters", "various expenses", "activities for city residents", "increased work", "contract workers", and "adapting educational buildings for emergency learning" and more. Alongside this, the closure of important programs and drastic cuts in budgets such as the program to eradicate the rat epidemic in the city, programs to promote employment, the activity budget for struggling youth, the budget for Chabad institutions, welfare programs and other important things. "It will be interesting to see how the various parties will vote on the matter, and in particular the Shas faction, in light of the upcoming elections and the attempt to present a desire for change in municipal conduct," says Wider. The Bnei Brak municipality's response has not yet been received. When it is received, it will be published.

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