Jerusalem municipal strike worsens
Conditions in Jerusalem worsen as the city goes out on strike to protest the severe delay in government funding, calling for an immediate fix to the problem.
The Jerusalem City Council decided on Sunday to increase the intensity of their strike after a transfer of 800 million shekels in funds for the city's budget was delayed. Starting Monday, schools will be delayed and preschools will be closed all across the city. That is in addition to strikes in most city departments, such as sanitation and water, which are already in progress.
The city council stated that the lack of funding might lead to employment terminations and severely damaging the services granted by the city to the public.
Starting Monday there will be widespread strikes across the city, in particular in front of the city's treasury department. Jerusalem City Mayor Nir Barkat called for the Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon to immediately step in and fix the issue "to prevent civilian suffering."
The treasury department has responded to Jerusalem city council's decision to broaden the strike:
"The Jerusalem city's systematic exploitation of its citizens as hostages is cynical and inappropriate. The treasury department has already transferred 525 million shekels to the city, and even though this is a budgetary addition from last year, the mayor of Jerusalem chooses to act in budgetary and civil irresponsibility towards the children of the city who deserve proper education and are negatively affected by this for the second time in the last two months."
"The mayor will have to bear responsibility for the parents who will be forced to leave their children at home as a result of this unnecessary strike that reflects inadequate budgetary behavior and capricious and impractical courses of action by the city."
