Jerusalem strike intensifies as daycare centers join municipal walkout
Standoff between city, Treasury deepens on day 3 of wage row that sees capital without garbage collectors, welfare services
Municipal day care centers in Jerusalem were shut on Tuesday as a municipality strike entered its third day amid a budgetary standoff between the city and the Finance Ministry over unpaid wages.
Programs for special-needs children would continue normally, Israel Radio reported, but other municipal services including garbage collection, welfare and social services, would be non-operational for a third day.
The municipality announced a general strike on Sunday because its 2017 budget has not yet been transferred to the city by the Finance Ministry.
On Monday, Jerusalem high schools and middle schools started at 10 a.m. and kindergarten afternoon programs were canceled altogether.
Hundreds of demonstrators also blocked major roads in the capital’s downtown area Monday, near the Prime Minister’s Residence, to demand an end to the public spat over city funding.
Elsewhere in the city, large buildups of garbage disrupted the light rail service. Outside the Mahane Yehuda market on Jaffa Road, uncollected trash spilled out onto the train tracks, limiting service in downtown Jerusalem.
The ongoing dispute has featured biting public arguments between city and Finance Ministry officials.
The municipality says that if the Finance Ministry does not transfer the funds, it will be forced to lay off staff and the quality of services in the city will drop.
Paz Cohen, head of the Jerusalem teachers’ organization, on Sunday said that auxiliary teachers had not been paid a salary since the beginning of the school year in September.
Mayor Nir Barkat called on Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to personally intervene to ensure the money is transferred immediately, “to prevent more suffering for the city’s residents.”
However, the Finance Ministry claims the lack of funds is a result of mismanagement, and asked Interior Minister Aryeh Deri to appoint a city accountant to stop the municipality from holding Jerusalem residents “hostage to foreign interests.”
In response, the municipality bitterly denied the accusations of mismanagement under Barkat and accused the treasury of waging a dishonest media campaign.
“We are sorry that the Finance Ministry uses lying media spin instead of strengthening the city. The challenges of the capital are the challenges of the country,” the municipality statement said.
“In contradiction to the lies of the Finance Ministry, throughout the entire Barkat era the municipality has never been in deficit and it even earned prizes from the Interior Ministry for the proper use of its finances and its transparent conduct.”
