Bnei Brak’s leaders should "focus more on providing basic municipal services rather than policing public behavior," city council member Yaki Vider told 103FM on Sunday.
His criticism came after the municipality’s controversial decision to separate men and women on sidewalks near wedding halls
Vider, who heads the Likud faction on the Bnei Brak City Council, also criticized the Interior Ministry’s decision to suspend assistance for residents affected during Operation Lion's Roar until the municipality condemned an attack on city inspectors, calling the move unacceptable collective punishment.
About a week ago, the Bnei Brak municipality announced an unusual measure to separate men and women on sidewalks in the area surrounding the city’s event halls.
“There is a municipality in Bnei Brak where dealmakers think they own the public,” Vider said. “Their job is to clean, handle infrastructure and transportation. There are so many problems in this city that they are not dealing with; they are dealing with things they are not supposed to touch.”
Asked about the street at the center of the controversy, Vider said it is “a crowded street in Bnei Brak, in an area of wedding halls,” but argued there were better ways to address the congestion.
“Turn it into a pedestrian street in the evening. There are many transportation solutions that can address the crowding problem. The considerations are irrelevant,” he said.
Vider also criticized the municipality’s refusal to establish a municipal WhatsApp hotline.
“There is no such hotline in Bnei Brak. One of the mayors said, ‘We will not encourage residents to have a smartphone.’ Forget the hypocrisy, they have smartphones, and with their nice jeeps they travel all over the world, but that is not their job,” he said.
Asked how residents viewed the municipality’s conduct, Vider said they had not been consulted.
“The residents were not asked. Many things that can be solved go unaddressed because of irrelevant considerations. You are not the public’s modesty patrol; your job is to serve and provide an answer for infrastructure, and you are not doing that,” he said.
“Some residents do not leave the city,” he added. “I do not know if you are aware of the level of isolation; they read HaModia, Yated Ne’eman and Hamashbir, they praise the dealmakers and do not voice criticism. There is a rat infestation in the streets, but the municipality does not hear about it. Those who mainly suffer from it are the ultra-Orthodox public; they are the ones who live in Bnei Brak.”
Despite his criticism, Vider said municipal politics in the city had begun to change.
“The current mayor in the previous term talked about drafting yeshiva students. He said, ‘If you don’t vote for me, Yair Lapid will come.’ This time it was about infrastructure and cleanliness. They did not do what they promised, but they talked about it. There is one change, and we hope it will expand.”
Vider also condemned the Tax Authority’s decision to suspend treatment of compensation claims for Bnei Brak residents harmed during Operation Lion's Roar after the municipality declined to condemn the attack on its inspectors.
“Those violent rioters should have been arrested long ago by the Israel Police, but a clerk cannot punish an entire population that has done no wrong because of a radical group,” he said.
He compared the decision to a hypothetical scenario in which the IDF chief of staff halted protection for Arab communities because Arab Knesset members did not condemn Islamist terrorism.
“This is aggressive punishment against an entire public, and I cannot understand how this is going through quietly in the State of Israel. I promise it would not be accepted in silence for any other population,” he said.