Residents living near PM Residence say J'lem mayor discriminates against them

"Permanent and frequent demonstrations have led to an insufferable situation for the petitioners, who feel like they've lost all sense of law and order," the latest petition reads.

By TOBIAS SIEGAL
TAKING UP torches in protest, outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on August 1. (photo credit: YANIV NADAV/FLASH90)
TAKING UP torches in protest, outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on August 1.
(photo credit: YANIV NADAV/FLASH90)
A group of residents who live near the Prime Minister's Official Residence on Jerusalem's Balfour Street petitioned against Mayor Moshe Lion and the Israel Police, demanding that the various protest sites in the area be vacated, according to a report by Walla News.
The petition, submitted to the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, claims that the protest compounds are an environmental hazard that residents are suffering from.
The High Court has already rejected a previous petition submitted by residents who requested that the protests be prohibited altogether.
The petitioners claim to have approached the Jerusalem municipality several times, requesting that the issue be addressed. Eventually, when that avenue failed, they decided to petition the District Court, after being told by officials in the municipality that the compounds are operating unlicensed and that the task of clearing them falls under the responsibility of the police.
The protest compound against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set up near the Prime Minister's Official Residence and has been operating for the past few months. Shortly afterward, another compound of Netanyahu supporters was erected right beside it.
"In the past several weeks, the petitioners, residents of the Rehavia and Talbiya neighborhoods in Jerusalem, have been suffering continued disturbances from various protests," the petition read. "Permanent and frequent demonstrations have led to an insufferable situation for the petitioners, who feel like they've lost all sense of law and order – a situation endorsed by the municipality, which isn't taking the proper enforcement measures."
They added that the municipality "is allowing demonstrations to take place without proper limits – with no balance between the right to protest and other human rights of the Rehavia and Talbiya residents."
The petitioners continued to criticize the police, which they believe is operating, together with the municipality, "in clear discrimination against the petitioners, in an unauthorized manner, while ignoring the law and it's enforcement – all of which have made the current situation an anarchy," according to the petition.
Attorney Hur Uriel Nizri who is representing the petitioners, said that "the fear of the Jerusalem mayor making decisions according to improper motives, at the expense of the residents and in utter disrespect of the law and the court's decision, has left the residents no other choice but to petition against him."
He added that "abandoning the residents of these neighborhoods; the failure to enforce the law; and such damage being done to the said residents, are improper and ugly actions – and everything must be done in order to put a stop to the anarchy. This insufferable reality and the conduct of the municipality is a crime – and the residents are its victims."