Quote Of The Day
The absorption of new olim in the State of Israel is a national mission. Building homes for haredim alone is not acceptable. If there will not be new olim, the city will deteriorate... You must give priority to marketing new apartments to people out of the army and to new olim. Building homes for haredim is blessed, but not in the place of building for secular and for Dati Leumi as well.
-- MK Danny Danon (Likud)
Danon, the director of the committee of absorption and aliyah said this directed to Mayor of Bet Shemesh Moshe Abutbol at a meeting in Bet Shemesh discussing the difficulties of absorption in the city. Present at the meeting were Mk Danon, MK Daniel Ben-Simon, MK Avraham Michaeli, Mayor Moshe Abutbol, various people from the City of Bet Shemesh municipality, and concerned residents.
The committee decided at the meeting that priority would be given to people who left the army and to new olim, and the would reconvene in 45 days jointly with the Ministry of Housing to follow-up on the decision and to evaluate the local housing crisis. I am not sure how much the government can force the city who to market homes to. At the end of the day I still see it as almost a non-issue, as the city will continue to pay lip service to such attempts and will simply say we are doing what we can and the only people interested are haredim.
You wrote:
ReplyDelete"the city will continue to pay lip service to such attempts and will simply say we are doing what we can and the only people interested are haredim." That actually isn't a lie.
OBVIOUSLY, if 7 year old Beit Shemesh girls get harassed on their way home from school simply for the 'crime' of not being haredi - who in their right MIND would move INTO
Beit Shemesh??
In this way, the fake haredi 'moderates' can wring their hands and say 'boo hoo, there is nothing we can do, these extremists don't listen to anybody' WHILE reaping the fruits of their 'labor' to turn Beit Shemesh into a haredi-only city. Then the haredi press can (in a MACHO tone) brag with 'pride' of how Beit Shemesh is being turned into Bnei Brak.
Now tell me, what non-haredi Israel city in their RIGHT MINDS would welcome haredim from the outside to move into their cities?? Why should they? So their little girls can get harassed on the way home from school??? Wonderful, sign me up.
Even if 90% of the haredim who move into the city are OK (or 99%), look at what has happened to Beit Shemesh. What city in their RIGHT MINDS would want this ???
And IF, chas v'shalom, a secular (or traditional) Israeli city takes action to PREVENT haredim from moving in, the haredi press can scream hysterically about how 'noone will let us move in' (note the IRONY). The press will scream "not since the 1930's have people opposed building yeshivot. The secular 'Israeli' are anti-tora and hate haredim." (NOTE the irony - extremist haredim won't tolerate 7 year old girls in their neighborhoods but the haredi leadership/press gets INSULTED if other cities don't want THEM moving in).
PS I did not write ANYTHING about the low rate of arnona (municipal taxes) payment in the haredi community. But people are NOT stupid. There is a BIG difference between giving a discount to the deserving poor, who through no choice of their own have hard luck and cannot pay their taxes (they DESERVE a discount) and those who voluntarily won't work and want to benefit from the tzedaka of others. And THEN have the nerve to rally against those who pay this tzedakeh and harass their children.
What city in their RIGHT MIND would want thousands of non-tax-payers moving in ?????
PPS I myself come from a very assimilated, secular family. One LARGE influence that helped me become frum as a youth was the haredi families in America - I had never encountered such fine people (such dignity!!) in my secular past. When I came to Israel/Beit Shemesh, BOY was I in for a SHOCK !!!
I agree with Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteGiven recent news coming out of Beit Shemesh, even moderate Charedim who are planning Aliya are starting to avoid Beit Shemesh / RBS.
This is double-true for Dati Leumi and hard to believe anyone that defines themself as Chiloni would even consider BS.
Do you have any idea how many Dati Leumi or non-Religious Olim have moved to RBS over the past year?