When RBS was a new neighborhood, there were fairly regular protests against various things in the neighborhood - schools, shuls, concerts, groups, whatever - you name it, a group of local swould protest it, often with a shofar in hand.

It has bene a very long time since I remember seeing such a local protest - one in which some local rabbonim got a bunch of local avreichim together and went out and said tehillim (and/or blew shofar) outside the target of their protest.

Today there was such a group on the corner of Ayalon-Kishon, where the construction is taking place. After that they went across the street to the Iryah's engineering offices and said some tehillim there as well and registered their protest.






I asked somebody what was being protested. I was told that they along that corner they are laying sand and dirt and eventually grass and trees, but are not following the laws of shmitta. They are ignoring possible allowed methods for doing this during shmitta, and are simply doing it the normal way. Also, supposedly there are other areas around that are planned to have similar work done, and allowing it to continue at this location as it is now will mean the same transgressions will happen in the other areas as well.

This was particularly surprising. Considering that the mayor of Bet Shemesh is a Haredi fellow, and he has a majority in city council that is Haredi, I don't understand why they cannot just send their askanim and contacts to the mayor and other city council members and insist that the work be done properly. And if they did that, why are they not being listened to? I would assume the city has some say and can register some official protest, even if it is Misrad Hashikun doing the work.