Jerusalem City Council Opposition Chairman Nir Barkat
suffered another defeat when a Jerusalem court decided to
permit the city to continue renovations on both of the
buildings in downtown Jerusalem given to the Shuvu School,
thereby upholding Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky's decision on
the matter.
Several weeks ago, Barkat filed an administrative appeal
against the Mayor over his decision to allocate two abandoned
buildings in downtown owned by the city to Shuvu High School
and Primary School and the Ateret Chen Seminary. Regarding
Shuvu, the court determined that the primary school, which is
a municipal institution, does not need any allocation and the
municipality's decision to transfer students to the building
was fully legal. A ruling has not been announced regarding
the high school since the city has yet to complete the
allocation procedure as requested.
The city wants to carry out renovations on both parts of the
school, while the municipality's legal adviser claims the
allocation procedure must first be completed. District Court
Judge David Cheshin ruled there is no reason not to perform
the renovation work all at once. Nevertheless, the building
cannot be fully renovated and used until a number of homeless
squatters are removed from the premises.
Deliberations over the Ateret Chen Seminary have been
postponed until the beginning of next week, but the
seminary's administration announced it intends to vacate the
building by the end of December, based on agreements reached
with the Mayor.
Judge Cheshin also upheld the Mayor's stance that municipal
workers are permitted to submit various declarations to the
Mayor and not only to the city's legal advisor, who claims
otherwise. The decision is expected to increase tensions
between the municipality and the Legal Advisor, who has long
opposed the Mayor's policies.
Rabbi Uri Lupoliansky praised the decision, which will allow
the schools to continue providing a shelter for children.
After the court rejected the Legal Advisor's attempts to
strike terror in municipal workers, Rabbi Lupoliansky added,
he believes the Legal Advisor will reach the obvious
conclusion.
