Say No to Racist in Jerusalem Mayor’s Coalition

Say No to Racist in Jerusalem Mayor’s Coalition

In the recent municipal elections, Nir Barkat was re-elected (by a slim 51%) for a second five-year term as mayor of Jerusalem.  But the make-up of the city council is somewhat different from the previous election.  First, there are two more Ultra-Orthodox representatives: one more for Shas (Sephardi Orthodox party), most likely due to extra votes in sympathy for the recently deceased Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and one new representative of a one-man opposition slate to the traditional United Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi Orthodox).  Second, Barkat’s own party lost two seats and Meretz lost one — but they were re-distributed among other more or less pluralist parties.

Third, a new national religious party got two seats (which together with the “Bayit Hayehudi” meant the three seats held previously by the National Religious Party were maintained but distributed differently).  But the new religious party includes a representative by the name of Aryeh King, who belongs to the extreme right and spent most of his life — and campaign — talking about how to keep Arabs out of the city, or how to force them to leave.

King publicized the fact that he has the “blessings” of Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu, who has been accused of racist activity and gave a psak halacha saying that it was forbidden to sell or rent apartments to non-Jews. Eliahu also called for the Arab students in the Tzfat College (where he lives) to be chased out of town. King also founded a fund to try to buy land in Palestinian neighborhoods and settle Israelis in them. He is responsible for the eviction of countless Arabs from their homes by a variety of business and legal maneuvers, including an exercise that gave title of houses back to the heirs of Jewish homes from before 1948; if expanded without racist preference for Jews, it opens up cross claims by Arabs for properties all over Jerusalem. Until this round of legal work, all legal title went back only to 1948.

Shockingly, Nir Barkat has decided to include Aryeh King in his new coalition.  In fact, his
agreement with King’s party was one of the first signed to establish the new coalition.  Parties that openly backed Barkat or have worked with him in the past have not yet settled on agreements with the newly re-elected mayor, whereas parties that supported his opponent or remained unaligned have already been signed on.  “United Jerusalem,” for example, did not endorse Nir Barkat — but was immediately courted by Nir and is now to be part of the municipality’s governing coalition.

Meretz, a left-wing party that was in Barkat’s coalition last term (and is the party I represent today in the city council, now part of a joint list with the Labor Party), asked from the outset that King not be part of the coalition. A petition to that effect has been gaining wide support on the Internet. Many people turned out to a protest today at a site where the mayor was giving a speech, calling him to remove King from the coalition.

Yet as it now stands, having to choose between a two-man party with a racist platform (“United Jerusalem”) or an activist party for social justice (Meretz), Barkat has chosen the racist partner. It is quite a blow to the mixed and pluralist city that Jerusalem is to have such a party in the city management, and it is a stain both on the mayor and on his other coalition partners that a party to the right of France’s Le Pen is accepted without contest.

One can only hope that some outside pressure — including perhaps some readers of this blog? — will help Barkat realize how damaging and dangerous it is to legitimize a man like King. I invite you to express your opinion: http://lishka.jerusalem.muni.il/

By | 2013-11-12T21:57:00-05:00 November 12th, 2013|Blog|5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Anonymous November 13, 2013 at 9:20 am - Reply

    To whom should one reach out? Name and address? And what would be a simple but succinct message?
    >> Arieh Lebowitz

    • Roxy December 28, 2016 at 2:53 pm - Reply

      I’ve been loinkog for a post like this for an age

    • http://www./ December 30, 2016 at 1:12 pm - Reply

      subtitles are very handy for the amount of Deaf or hard of hearing, the trick of ignoring them is to just watch the centre of the screen, ends only if i find the video itself boring that i wander to the subs. But i can imagine how annoying it CAN be

  2. Laura Wharton November 13, 2013 at 11:13 pm - Reply

    I would say: Mayor Barkat, including a racist like Aryeh King in your governing coalition is a stain on Jerusalem. Please cancel your agreement with him and send him to the opposition! And here’s where to send your message, whatever it may be: http://lishka.jerusalem.muni.il/

  3. Anonymous November 14, 2013 at 4:08 am - Reply

    Dear Laura,

    While Aryeh King is undoubtedly dreadful, are you suggesting that Nir Barkat is not already a racist who has been colluding to drive Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem?

    Sure, it’s better to keep King out of the coalition, but isn’t it is false advertising to set King up as terribly different from the Mayor himself? What have Elad and others been doing successfully on his watch?

    Ted

Leave A Comment