On January 10, 1932, nascent newspaper Doar HaYom printed an article in which it recommended dividing Jerusalem into four municipalities: one for the Jews, one for the Christians, one for the Muslims and an umbrella municipality that would cater to all three religions.
“The demarcation line between the Jewish section and the rest of the city,” the article read, “will start at Feingold Courtyard on Jaffa Street, near Queen Shlomzion Street, will continue around Mea She’arim and will include residents of the Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood. Then it will reach all the way to the Sanhedria cemetery.”
The idea was to find a way to focus on the problems and current needs of the city of Jerusalem and its residents. In essence, the call to separate the city into quarters according to the affiliation of each neighborhood’s residents was in fact a foretelling of the future, when the Jewish residents of Jerusalem would have their own municipality. It also presaged the great Arab uprising of 1936-1939, when the Arabs demanded independence from the British Mandate and the prevention of Jewish immigration.
Almost a century has passed since then, and yet the question of how to manage the city of Jerusalem – Israel’s capital, which is now the largest city in the country, with the largest number of both Arabs and haredim – still preoccupies the minds of many. The question regarding the status of the city’s 380,000 Arab residents is still reviewed every time a new mayor is elected, and local politicians are constantly reexamining the Doar HaYom suggestion.
JERUSALEM’S OLD town hall building, constructed in 1930 during the British Mandate with a rounded wall overlooking the Jaffa Gate, was financed by Barclays Bank and designed by British architect Clifford Holliday. In 1972, Israeli artist Avigdor Arikha added the stained-glass windows adorning the council hall. In the 1980s, when Teddy Kollek was still mayor, it was decided to merge all the scattered offices of the municipality and to house them in one sprawling modern campus.
The Safra family donated the required funds and the construction of the new campus was finally completed in the 1990s, when Kollek was no longer in office. The campus included two new buildings alongside old structures that had undergone preservation, with the rounded historic wall remaining intact. The current municipality sits on the line between the Old City, the haredi Mea She’arim neighborhood and an area with a more heterogeneous population.
With close to a million residents (one-third of which is haredi and another third Arab), Jerusalem is not only Israel’s biggest city, but also its poorest. With its 11,000 employees, in addition to the thousands of workers subcontracted to provide many of the city’s services, the Jerusalem municipality remains the capital’s beating heart and its largest and most powerful entity.
THE MUNICIPALITY is tackling a number of challenges, some unique to the capital city.
One issue on the city’s radar is how to provide the necessary services to those without Internet access. Considering that most haredim deliberately refrain from going online, how can they access the range of services offered by the municipality? What solutions are being offered to Jerusalem’s older residents who do not feel comfortable using modern technology, or to those not fluent in Hebrew? How are services being rendered that up until the outbreak of COVID-19 were offered in person at the municipality’s offices?
Jerusalem Municipality CEO Itzik Larry admits that overcoming technology difficulties might be difficult for some populations, and the municipality is in the midst of coming up with solutions for these individuals.
“First of all, our online services are available in a number of languages. Second, people who do not have or are not interested in using our online services are welcome to visit our offices and take care of business in person with our staff, while still adhering to COVID-19 restrictions. Moreover, when residents do approach our offices for help in person, our staff have been trained to show individuals with Internet access how to access these services online for future needs. In addition, our community administrators have also been trained to offer these services for people living in their neighborhood.”
How do issues like the above-mentioned affect employment opportunities?
Regarding employment, Larry says that people from different communities, including Arab and haredi residents, are employed in a variety of municipal positions. One of the ways the city is addressing this issue is through the privatization of certain services. Two years ago, Moshe Lion, as newly elected mayor, succeeded in convincing Jerusalem Histadrut head Danny Bonfil, former head of the municipality’s employees committee, to outsource all sanitation services to private companies. This success has opened the door to the next step, which is the privatization of the city’s beautification division.
ANOTHER QUESTION is how one can be an involved citizen here. Can residents influence decisions that affect the lives of every person making their lives here? Some claim that citizens cannot affect decisions made in local government, whereas others believe that if one learns how the system works, it is indeed possible.
One of the innovative changes that Kollek implemented 35 years ago was forming a network of community administrations that would function as mini-municipalities. Many Jerusalemites today, however, lament that this vision never really came to fruition.
“Running a community administration requires a tremendous amount of time, work and dedication,” admits Dalia, a former community leader who requested her full name not be used. “And even if active residents invest a ton of time and energy, they don’t even necessarily achieve their goals, since the municipality has the last say on all matters anyway. In the end, individual residents have very little power to make changes, so most community activists give up trying.”
Moreover, according to Dalia, the town hall meetings to which all citizens are invited to participate are actually just a way for the municipality to appear as if they are taking residents’ opinions into account.
Even senior staff inside the Jerusalem municipality admit that decisions are often made in line with political constraints – and sometimes even as a result of pressure from national political parties – and not according to actual residents’ needs.
“There is a lot of infighting between the various haredi parties,” explains a municipality employee who requested anonymity. “These types of considerations have a direct impact on decisions made regarding local issues. For example, the biggest difference between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi haredi parties is that [Shas head] Arye Deri seems to be pulling the strings regarding local issues, and even making deals with non-religious residents. This phenomenon has not been seen among the Ashkenazi haredi parties.”
Regarding participation of citizens in city council meetings, the same anonymous employee claims this does have an impact.
“When residents show up at these meetings, their elected representatives automatically view this as a sign they need to remain accountable to their constituents, and that they can’t just do anything they want, since people are watching them and keeping track of decisions.”
How does this system work?
“Let’s say, for example, that someone requests a permit to open a hair salon in a residential area. According to the city plans, this neighborhood may not be zoned for businesses, but residents can apply for a change of designation. You need to fill out a form, then the council will discuss your case. If the request is approved, the applicant needs to apply for a business permit. Most of these are long-term permits, but some of them need to be renewed. All this information is accessible on the Jerusalem municipality’s website. And if someone does not have computer access, they can approach their community administrator or our staff at the municipality building in person for information.”
What is the city’s rapport with Arab residents like?
“Things have improved tremendously lately, but there’s still a lot to be done,” asserts the municipal employee. “Many more people have learned how to access municipal services online since the COVID-19 outbreak forced them to. Pretty much everything has been translated into Arabic.
“Up until the pandemic, many Arab residents preferred to make their arnona [municipal tax] payments in person with the many Arabic-speaking employees who work at Safra Square. Once this became impossible during the lockdowns, the municipality improved its 106 phone service, and a nonprofit called Mini-Active, run by women in the Arab sector, was put in place to help Arab residents receive technology training so they can pay bills online. In fact, the most widely used site among residents of east Jerusalem is Mayor Moshe Lion’s Facebook page.”
According to Lion, “We reply to every single question or request posted on this page, and municipality employees are tasked with solving every single issue that is brought to our attention. In addition, every person who writes a WhatsApp message to me is sent a reply.”
When asked if it is normal for a mayor to give out his personal cellphone number, Lion replied that he just passes on each message to the correct person who can help them solve the issue, and that a mayor should always be accessible to his constituents.
“This was the same in the days of Teddy Kollek, just without the smartphones, and that’s the way I want things to be nowadays too,” Lion said.
THE FOUR municipality buildings that together comprise Safra Square serve a central role in the lives of city residents on an almost daily basis. Whether it’s a permit to open a new babysitting service, synagogue or wellness center, everything needs to get approval from the powers that be in Safra Square.
In an effort to advise citizens on how to follow the sometimes overwhelming guidelines, the municipality decided to hold a day-long seminar on the subject. This was a great idea in theory, but what it really did was make it even more clear how much bureaucracy residents need to get through in order to receive permits.
The bottom line, however, is clear: There is room for optimism in believing that the senior professional echelon understands there are problems they must fix and that it’s their job to serve the public, improve the situation and figure out customized solutions for each individual situation.
Has the municipality greatly improved its customer service and achieved the ultimate level of service? No, but great strides have been made, and there is a general consensus that things are moving in the right direction, and that citizens’ complaints are being seriously considered and dealt with in a timely manner.
An idea: Maybe the Jerusalem Municipality should begin offering multi-language guided tours of the various departments at Safra Square, empowering everyone to find their way through the maze of Israel’s largest municipality.
Translated by Hannah Hochner.