9 Sander Hadad Street could have been another address of a sleepy building in the center of Petah Tikva, but in the heat of the last few months, far from the hustle and bustle of Iron Swords, it has become a central arena in another war, which threatens to ignite the ultra-Orthodox sector and affect the order of forces along its length and breadth.
Residents of Bnei Brak distribute cholent to protesters against the legal reform (23.03.2023)
While most of the residents of Israel, as well as the media, are concerned with the successes of the IDF in the Gaza Strip and the votes in the north, at the same time, a real war is taking place between the businessmen of the ultra-Orthodox parties. The goal: the conquest of two of the largest cities in Israel, and the most important for the ultra-Orthodox sector - Bnei Brak and Beit Shemesh.
To understand how important these municipalities are as the centers of control and power of the ultra-Orthodox parties, it is worth looking at the data: in Bnei Brak, known as the "Orthodox capital city", about a quarter of a million residents live, its budget in 2023 was more than 1.6 billion shekels (1,664,841).
The control of the city, which serves as the spiritual and commercial capital of the sector, is not only control over huge budgets, public lands and many municipal jobs, but also provides status and power.
Similar to the position of the mayor of Jerusalem - the role of the mayor of Bnei Brak within the ultra-Orthodox sector is equivalent to the role of a very senior minister.
The head of the city today is a man of Torah Judaism, Rabbi Avraham Rubinstein.
Shas is waiting for an opportunity. Beit Shemesh, photo: Yonatan Shaul
Beit Shemesh has fewer residents, and as of 2023 their number is over 160,000, when its budget for that year was NIS 851 million, but its position is one of the most important for the ultra-orthodox sector.
One of the reasons is that it is the largest city that was under the control of the ultra-Orthodox parties, apart from Jerusalem for a short period of time, and also due to the significant increase in the ultra-Orthodox population in the city.
The head of the city is currently Aliza Bloch, who comes from the religious-nationalist sector.
The pinnacle of the sector
The local elections are the most important elections for the ultra-orthodox sector, by a considerable margin from the national elections.
One of the reasons for this is that control of the local authorities enables control over huge budgets, very expensive public spaces and thousands of municipal jobs.
And also because there, away from the nose of the national media and the law enforcement agencies, the businessmen allow themselves to riot and cross borders that they would not dare cross in the government offices, which are subject to strict scrutiny.
Haredim in line for the ballot (archive), photo: Yehoshua Yosef
To all this is added the communal and class control within the ultra-orthodox sector which is carried out mainly through the local authorities, especially the largest of them.
From Petach Tikva to Bnei Brak
Three candidates are currently running in Bnei Brak - Hanoch Seibert, the mayor's deputy who is a representative of Agudat Israel; Uriel Bosso, the minister of health and a Shas representative;
And Jacob Vider, council member and chairman of the opposition, who is a Likud representative.
Bosso, who served for many years as a council member in Petah Tikva and never lived in Bnei Brak, was sent by the chairman of the movement, Aryeh Deri, to quickly move his address on the eve of the submission of the lists from 9 Sander Hadad Street in Petah Tikva to 38 Sokolov Street in Bnei Brak, with the aim of trading his candidacy For the purpose of a major national deal that will bring Derai control over the mayorship of Beit Shemesh, and maybe even the mayorship of Elad.
In practice, and apparently even against the law, even though he has not yet withdrawn his candidacy for the municipality of Bnei Brak, Minister Bosso continues to live in Petah Tikva, where the guard booth was even placed outside his house.
His neighbors in the "new" place of residence in Bnei Brak say that another family lives in his house and rents the apartment.
The neighbor who lives in the apartment where Bosso used to live shared with us that the Bosso family only appeared there during the holidays and since then no longer lived in the building, and therefore she rented the apartment in his place.
enters the business equation.
Elad municipality, photo: None
The threat of Shas to capture the mayorship of Bnei Brak became significant after insiders learned that there was a possibility that they would join council member Yaakov Vider, who serves as the opposition chairman in the city.
Vader is the eternal opposition representative who fought against the old city leadership and gained some popularity in the city after leading fights against the severe neglect of the infrastructure, the plague of rats and the constant flooding of the sewers.
It should be noted that the municipality even sued Vader as a precedent after he claimed that its businesses steal huge sums of public money and claimed that he is defaming.
In the end he won the trial.
Vader does not operate in a vacuum.
The leadership of the city of Bnei Brak suffers from a severe lack of public credit.
For example, in a survey by "Direct Falls", published in the ultra-orthodox weekly "Mishfa" last August, 86% of the residents were strongly opposed to the city's leadership's deals and replied that this harmed them, and only less than 10% claimed that they were satisfied with the functioning of the municipality and its leadership - numbers Amazingly disappointed that they do not have an example in other cities in the country.
Jacob Vader with Minister of Environmental Protection Idit Silman during a visit to the city (archive), photo: Tana Communications
Beit Shemesh has three candidates: Mayor Aliza Bloch;
Shmuel Greenberg, representative of the Torah banner;
And Deputy Minister Moshe Abutbul, former mayor and candidate Shas Abutbul was sent by the chairman of the movement, MK Aryeh Deri, to run again, with the aim of taking control of the important city for the sector and thus ousting the popular mayor.
The city of Elad also entered the equation, where the representative of Agudat Israel, the current mayor Yisrael Parosh and the son of the minister Meir Parosh, and Yehuda Botbul, the Shas representative, are competing.
Attempt to cancel the elections
In an attempt to gain control of one of the important cities, a large number of complicated combinations came to the table, with the aim of bringing the Shas under control in the cities of Beit Shemesh or Elad, and to help the Agudat Israel easily take control of the largest and most important of the ultra-Orthodox cities - Bnei Brak. In fact, the Shas You will relinquish control of Bnei Brak in favor of the Gur Hasidim and Hanoch Seibert, a representative of Agudath Israel, and thus the Gur Hasidim will support Shas in both Elad and Beit Shemesh.
Uriel Bosso, a bargaining chip that will withdraw candidacy?, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The opinion of the city's residents or their well-being was not taken into account in any way.
And so, with the aim of obtaining the mayorship for the Shas man Moshe Abotobul, and perhaps even the mayorship of Elad for the Shas man, the parties reached an agreement in the last few days according to which Minister Bosso will continue to relax in his luxurious office at the Ministry of Health and withdraw his candidacy in Bnei Brak.
Hanoch Seibert, representative of Torah Judaism, will receive the support of Shas in Bnei Brak, and in return Agudat Israel will support the candidacy of Moshe Abutbul in Beit Shemesh. Thus, the main factions in Agudat Israel will also support the candidacy of Yehuda Butbul, a member of Shas, in Elad.
on the operating table
At the end of last week, an idea was put on the operating table, which is unlikely to pass the legal hurdle.
According to the idea, the heads of the groups and all the parties in Bnei Brak will reach an agreement on the distribution of mandates.
The identity of the mayor - Agudat Israel representative Hanoch Seibert will also be agreed upon.
In fact, they want to cancel the only municipal democratic celebration.
Standing behind the scenes, Aryeh Deri,
The goal is to prevent an election in which everyone has something to lose - for the Torah Flag Party, which is angry with Agudat Israel following the failure to support its position in Beit Shemesh and is finding it difficult to "take revenge" because it did not submit a candidacy for mayor of Bnei Brak;
To the Shas, who will not have to explain the meaning of lowering Bosso's candidacy after they pledged to "bring change"; and also to Seibert, who is not popular and will not have to be humiliated by low percentages of support. Vader's party opposes this and demands elections in any situation.
Another proposal came up among Degal HaTorah businessmen, and was prepared in the event that the elections in Bnei Brak would indeed take place, and the deal that would require the removal of Bosso's candidacy and Agudat Israel's support for the Shas candidate in Beit Shemesh would indeed apply. According to the proposal, Degal HaTorah would be instructed to vote a protest vote in Bnei Brak with a white ballot for mayor, in order to embarrass Agudat Israel's position and lead to a second round in the mayoral elections.
Hanoch Seibert (archive), photo: Dodi Vaaknin
At the moment, everyone is waiting for Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Hagar, son of the Rebbe of Vizhnitz, who is supposed to return from abroad at the end of the week and approve the agreements concerning Beit Shemesh and Elad.
As reflected in all the surveys conducted within the ultra-Orthodox sector - the anger among the residents of the ultra-Orthodox cities over national deals that do not check the degree of suitability and the needs that each city has, but are only measured according to the national control needs of the party leaders and their dealings, is enormous and can directly affect the continued power of the ultra-orthodox parties, and on the extent of the sector's automatic voting, which the ultra-orthodox party leaders have become accustomed to trusting without fear.
In contrast to the past, when the dils and combines in the ultra-orthodox cities had a deadline, and it was the time to submit the lists, in this election campaign, which was repeatedly dragged out due to the war that broke out after the nominations were submitted, the deadline has disappeared, and the dils and combines sewn in dark rooms above the heads of hundreds of thousands of residents will continue To sew until the last moment to the satisfaction of the party leaders and the disappointment of the residents.
These will again be forced to accept municipal leadership that serves national deals and not their needs and the needs of their city.
Former mayor and Shas candidate, minister Moshe Abutbul, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In the response received on behalf of Uriel Bosso it was stated: "The minister intends to run for mayor of Bnei Brak".
In response to the question of whether he still lives in the city as a candidate for its leadership, as required by law, the minister answered "yes", despite reports from his neighbors that he continues to live in Petah Tikva.
Hanoch Seibert denied the things mentioned in this article and said: "There is no connection between the cities, and each one of them conducts itself."
Moshe Abutbul's response: "Abutbul is the leading candidate for mayor of Beit Shemesh for the upcoming municipal elections. We are happy that many large communities, including the Gor Hasidim, Vizhnitz and others, have announced their decision to support Abutbul's candidacy, in order to jointly lead the change and unity that Beit Shemesh needs especially in the period this".
"It will be emphasized - the joining of the communities and sects in Abutbol has nothing to do with what is happening in other cities and with other candidates."
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