I am writing this column with pain, after a letter I received from an ultra-Orthodox resident of the Kiryat Yuval neighborhood in Jerusalem, who told me about a tour that was held last week at the Beit Yaakov school in the Beit Vegan neighborhood.<\/p>\r\n
For those who are not familiar with what is happening on the ground in Kiryat Yuval (and I'm sure many of you are), I will tell you a few basic facts:<\/p>\r\n
Kiryat Yuval is a secular neighborhood that is becoming 'ultra-Orthodox'. The Haredi community in the neighborhood numbers about 1,000 families. There is an 'ultra-Orthodox exclusion' in the neighborhood. The Haredi do not receive basic services to which they are entitled by virtue of being taxpayers, just like their secular brothers.<\/p>\r\n
There is also discrimination in educational institutions - and here we come to the story of 'Beit Yaakov'.<\/p>\r\n
Besides the fact that there are no kindergartens for Haredi children in the neighborhood (there are 17 institutions, but they all operate in the nearby Beit Vegan neighborhood), there is also no school. This is despite the fact that there are no fewer than 700 Haredi girls of elementary age.<\/p>\r\n
Don't they deserve an educational institution?<\/p>\r\n
If the answer depends on Mayor Nir Barkat, the answer is no. He would, it seems, prefer to take an empty school that was supposed to close (due to a lack of students) and bring residents from other neighborhoods and even outside Jerusalem (mostly), so that, God forbid, it doesn't fall into the hands of the Haredi.<\/p>\r\n
This phenomenon creates a situation where the Beit Yaakov School in Beit Vegan is in a deplorable state, where there are 1,700 students - as mentioned, 700 of whom come from Kiryat Yovel.<\/p>\r\n
These students study in substandard conditions, in crowded trailer classrooms of 40 girls per class. During recess, the yard is crowded due to the trailers that occupy almost the entire space in the yard.<\/p>\r\n
There is hardly a day that girls do not return home with injuries as a result of collisions, due to the overcrowding. The director general of the community administration noted that residents of Beit Vegan are no longer interested in accepting additional students from Kiryat Yuval, due to the difficult situation.<\/p>\r\n
How is it possible for a democratically elected mayor to behave like a dictator?<\/p>\r\n
Since the beginning of his term, Bareket has been running the city as if it were his own. He is postponing the elections for the community director, which are supposed to take place by law, only because he is unwilling to have any more ultra-Orthodox representatives in the administration - ones who will demand what they deserve.<\/p>\r\n
If it were Ethiopians or Russians, his behavior would be completely different. The street would be noisy and boisterous, and demonstrations would be organized on every corner. But the Haredim are the 'punching bag' of Israeli society.<\/p>\r\n
When one of the residents' representatives approached him, the mayor shouted at him: "You're interfering with my running the city.".<\/p>\r\n
Well, Mr. Barkat, let me tell you: the city is not yours and not your property. And yes, we are citizens with equal rights.<\/p>\r\n
And one more thing, Mr. Barkat: We Haredim live well with the secularists in Kiryat Yuval. With affection and tolerance towards each other. We have no problem with them.<\/p>\r\n
The crazy handful of 'Free Kiryat' - the movement that fights the Haredim with all its might, with your backing as mayor who strives to see Jerusalem 'pluralistic', is creating an atmosphere of war on the street, and leading to the violation of our most basic rights.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discrimination against the ultra-Orthodox residents of the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood crosses the boundaries of sanity: 1,700 girls study at the Beit Yaakov School in Beit Vegan, in terrible overcrowding, with 700 of them coming from Kiryat Yovel.","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[2679,3936,6563],"class_list":["post-172470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-2679","tag-3936","tag-6563"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n