Local authorities to strike in response to violence against mayors

Local authorities in Israel were set to strike for two hours starting at 10 a.m. on Sunday, protesting recent violence against mayors.

Union of local authorities head and Ma’alot-Tarshiha Mayor Shlomo Buchbut asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the issue of violence against local politicians in the government’s weekly meeting on Sunday.

“In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the amount and force of violence directed at leaders of local authorities,” Buchbut wrote in his request. While “grenades were thrown, explosive devices planted, cars set on fire and other types of violence used [against local politicians],” the impression is that “the world keeps on turning” and no one cares, he stated.

“We feel that we’re not getting the necessary backing from the government,” Buchbut said, pointing at the fact that a decision to allocate funds for better personal security was made by the government last year but has not yet been implemented.

In March, Acre Mayor Shimon Lankri was shot in the chest and hospitalized for over a week. After his release he blamed the shooting on people who wanted “to change the rule of the city by ‘taking out’ the mayor.” Lankri stated he would not resign before the municipal elections in October, adding Acre’s residents — and not criminals — would choose the next mayor.

In February, unknown assailants torched Hadera Mayor Haim Avitan’s car.

“We won’t wait for a mayor to be killed, and we won’t allow criminals to turn Israel into the wild west,” Buchbut stated, demanding the transfer of funds already allocated for security details for mayors who needed them and harsher actions by the police and courts against those responsible for the violence.