The following is an interchange that I had:
Interlocutor: --- In Tzfat@yahoogroups.com, "chslar"
Me: So long as Yishai Maimon is Mayor of this City it is his responsiblity to reign in his underlings if need be, which should not need be.
Most importantly, and I see that I need to state this again: What happened in Tzfat during the war is not an isolated incident. If it were I would chalk it up to fear, confusion, ineptitude.
It is not, however, a fluke or a foible. It is the most extreme and outrageous example of the treatment of the poor in this town by the Municipality and the "connected" families on an everyday basis. That is why I have said and will reiterate: This must be a "root canal job". We have to clean out the rotted, infected root of the problem of corruption in this town.
17 out of 350 of the Municipal workers remained in Tzfat, necessitating a military take-over of this city during the war. I believe a situation like that is unprecedented in Israel. There should be no precedent like that in a democratically-run country, not even an ersatz democracy that is really a plutocracy like Israel.
Interlocutor: Regarding the school, the two schools were combined and given the old Mamlachti Aleph school because it is bigger,
Me: My understanding it that it is smaller.
Interlocutor: What would you have said if the schools were combined and given the Mamlachti Gimel school, which has more bomb shelters but less space for classrooms?
You would have complained about that!
Me: I do not presume to put words into your mouth and second guess you. Kindly pay me the same respect.
I know, living in this neighborhood, that the parents of the children who are being transferred from Mamlakhti Aleph to Mamlakhti Gimmel are very, very unhappy about the decision. The parents are my neighbors. They feel shafted. They feel ganged up against by the authorities. They feel helpless to come to champion their children's rights. They know their children are being used as pawns in a political game. Last year they held a strike against the transfer. This year the Municipality got the gov't to join forces with them and essentially bully the parents into submission. If the parents had any reason to believe that their children were being bettered would they be so against the situation?
What say you about the children at risk who were dispossessed of their specially-equipped, purposefully-dontated kindergarten so that Charedi children could get the coveted facility as part of a political deal?
Interlocutor: I might point out, as well, that the spaces where the kids were learning> before from the Haredi/Dati schools, before they were given proper school buildings, had no shelters at all.
Me: That may very well be illegal. If you believed that to be the case then why did you not report the situation to the proper authorities? It is your legal responsiblity to report any and all cases of children being put, even potentially, at risk. Do you not know that? Why did you not do everything in your power to protect those children if you felt they may be in danger?
In one of your recent posts you describe a situation in which people were lined up begging for free rooms in hotels. I submit that no one should be reduced to begging for that which is coming to them - particularly not when someone else has usurped that which is rightfully theirs. Evidently, your friend who volunteered was not privy to seeing what was going on behind the scenes or the reasons why those who were entitled to the free rooms did not get them.
Were you in Tzfat during the war, by the way?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
