''You are smug, arrogant, snacking on burekas, but the residents of Bnei Brak despise you''

January 12, 2025   

This week's city council meeting was stormy, after Yaakov Widar, a city council member and chairman of the Likud faction, accused those he calls "municipality officials" of trying to secretly budget for "Shemitah overseers," even though this year is not a Shemitah year. They also cut the budget for health and girls in need by about NIS 1 million, he said, and exceeded the approved budget for "celebrations," "cup-stealing," and unknown contractor workers, whose exceptional number is about 900 workers. This is in addition to the thousands of permanent city employees. Menachem Shapira, acting mayor, tried to interrupt Widar's words nonstop, after filling in for Hanoch Seibert in the chair of the council meeting. Shapira did not allow Widar to complete a sentence, claiming that "Vidar is talking nonsense" and that "the residents of Bnei Brak are laughing at him." Vider replied to him: "You say in 'Yated Ne'eman' that Shapira is doing miracles and wonders, and in 'HaModia' they write that Seibert is managing the city in a wonderful way, and then the residents of Bnei Brak go out into the street and discover cesspools, sewage and mice - the residents of Bnei Brak are not stupid.". Watch the heated speech.