What they feared has come to pass: In recent months, the Lithuanian community has been paying the price for supporting Yona Yahav's rival for mayor.
According to residents, the mayor who won the election is harassing residents and hitting the soft underbelly of the Haredi-Lithuanian public - educational institutions.
However, the story currently stirring the Haredi community is a chain of letters coming from the mayor's office - threatening to disconnect electricity from the Haredi girls' school "Talalei Orot," despite the ongoing legal battle between the Haredi community and the Haifa municipality.
A few days before the start of the school year, the school administration received a letter from the legal advisor of Haifa Municipality - Adv. Rinat Federman, which stated: "I hereby update you that following the cancellation of the allocation of the property in question, the Talalei Orot Association, the building will be disconnected from electricity on 01.09.2024 (the first day of the school year)."
The municipality also threatened the Haredi institution with a financial lawsuit: "This does not exhaust the municipality's claims for financial damages due to use made of the property based on false, misleading, and deceitful representation and in bad faith and/or failure to vacate the property after the allocation was canceled."
Michi Alper, chairman of the 'Degel LaToshav' faction and city council member, sent an urgent query to the mayor, wondering how electricity can be disconnected from the school when the question of the building's allocation is currently in legal proceedings.
"This is an outrageous letter, which raises real concern about the misuse of government power and vigilantism," Alper sharply criticizes the mayor, "I doubt the municipality has any authority to disconnect electricity in the place. It seems that the municipality has forgotten its duty to assist educational institutions and its duty to act for the benefit of the children."
Alper continues to warn that disconnecting the electricity means exposing the mayor to a personal lawsuit against him as well as exposing local authority employees to personal lawsuits due to the damage that will be caused to the school: "These instructions carried out by you are prohibited and do not comply with the provisions of the law, and you are exposed to personal liability and even expose city employees to personal liability for any prohibited action."
About 120 students study at the Haredi school "Talalei Orot" under the presidency of Rabbi Peretz Meir Shlita. In recent weeks, Mayor Yona Yahav has been working vigorously to cancel the school's allocation, even though it was given legally.
According to Yahav, the school also has students who don't live in Haifa, despite the fact that it is a metropolitan city where outside students are also accepted, and Yahav himself announced immediately upon taking office that he invites students from the Druze settlements of Isfiya and Daliat al-Carmel to register in the Haifa education system.
Michi Alper, who is leading a public and legal battle against Yahav's decision, argued passionately at the city council meeting that this is "political revenge and these children are paying the price. Where have we deteriorated to? We are brothers. I've been here for 16 years. A person brings himself to where he is. This is not a matter of coalition or opposition. This is a question of humanity. Don't turn yourselves into bad people who hurt children who have not sinned and have done nothing to you. There are girls here who will pay a price."
After the vote was approved, the school administration began legal proceedings. Sources involved in the campaign note that this is a familiar method of Mayor Yahav, who opposes anything that reminds of a hint of Judaism. These are not professional disputes, according to the sources, but purely hatred for religious and Haredi people and an attempt to push them out, even as despite the legal process, Yahav is trying to act brutally and disconnect the electricity, presumably in order to cause the administration to voluntarily leave the building.
The Haifa Municipality responded: "The municipality is not acting to disconnect the electricity at all. The association operating in the building has paid their electricity debt for years, and therefore it was informed that it must pay past debt and act for independent connection and not through the municipality and at its expense. This is a legitimate demand that every holder/tenant from the municipality carries out and bears the payment at his own expense and does not rely on the municipality, and certainly does not demand that the municipality bear the payment of [his] bills and [his] electricity consumption."
