More garbage left on capital's streets amid budget dispute
Court accepts appeal by Finance Ministry to temporarily ban Jerusalem municipality from staging strike of educational institutions, as residents forced to endure the continuing inconveniences of sanitation strikes, leading to littered streets and a partially crippled light rail.
Jerusalem’s residents awoke to a partially crippled light rail system caused by trash littered all over its tracks on Monday morning, as the municipality continues to battle with the Finance Ministry over a budget dispute.
The garbage sprawled throughout downtown Jerusalem comes in the wake of a decision by the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court Sunday night to issue a decree against a strike of children’s educational institutions and preschools planned by the city Mayor Nir Barkat which was set to take place Monday morning.
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. The strike on the educational institutions was planned to begin in addition to strikes in most city departments, such as sanitation and water, which are already in progress.
As a result of the obstacles composed of food, cardboard boxes and various other forms of waste, the light rail service has been compelled to limit its operations between Pisgat Ze’ev to Damascus Gate and from Mount Herzl and the Central Bus Station.
Officials at the Ministry of Finance, whose office appealed to the court to thwart the strike, told Ynet that Nir Barkat is a failed mayor.
“He tries to pass his managerial failings onto the State. An accountant for the municipality needs to be appointed because of Barkat’s failings,” the official said.
He further accused Barkat of having a lack of interest in Jerusalem, claiming instead that he has his sights firmly set on the primaries for the Likud party.
“In order to stand a realistic chance of making the Likud list for the next Knesset, Barkat is putting Jerusalem on strike,” the official asserted. “This strike is part of his cynical political campaign and the residents of Jerusalem are being used as the set.”
The court announced that it was issuing a temporary ban on the strike of elementary educational institutions after studying reasons posited justifying its implementation, saying that it required time to make a decision.
Residents of the capital vented over having to endure, not for the first time, the filth and waste which has spilled over onto their streets as disputes have simmered in the political establishment.
“It is absurd that the municipality is fighting for a budget and the ones who are hit in the end are the residents, the weak public of Jerusalem,” one resident fumed. “Neither the Finance Ministry or the municipality cares that this feud is harming us. We need to take the piles of garbage and put them at the entrance of the ministry and perhaps then the budget issue will be solved.”
Liran Levi, Elisha Ben Kimon and Moran Azulay contributed to this report.
