that video I posted the other day from the inauguration ceremony of the new section of the engineering department of Iryat Bet Shemesh made it to the national news. I had no idea at the time that there was an issue with the content, bu tit seems the next fight is already on the way.



As you could see in the clip, the mayor used the opportunity to ask MK Gafni for assistance in getting more classrooms built for Bet Shemesh students. the mayor says there is a shortage of 300 classrooms.

It turns out, as you can see in the new report, the new section of the engineering department was built in classrooms taken from a school building. So they complain about a shortage of classrooms while converting existing classrooms into irya offices..

and then there is the legality issue - they closed off an emergency exit, they had no legal permission to use these rooms, as the building is owned by the Ministry of Education and not the iryah...

the iryah responded that the rooms weren't in use, and they will clear out the moment the classrooms are needed. they did not want to put a haredi school in the empty rooms, to avoid fights like the last time they did it.

There are non-haredi schools in the neighborhood that also need classrooms. If they wanted to avoid a fight, instead of taking it for the engineering department they could have moved dati leumi schools out of caravans and into these rooms.

I get that it it can be seen as a form of "you have to spend money to make money" - they have to take over a few classrooms in order to get more - the engineering department has to do its work, the iryah has to push government officials, etc.