Bnei Brak – No Charedi Walk In The Park, Outsiders Barred From Givat Shmuel Parks

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    FILE - Young boys play on a swing in a park on September 17, 2014. Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90Bnei Brak – Inter-communal tensions have been stoked by the city of Givat Shmuel after it gave notice that it is restricting entry to two municipal parks to city residents alone from the middle of July to the middle of August.

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    The outcry over the decision came because many residents of the overwhelmingly haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city of Bnei Brak, adjacent to Givat Shmuel, take their children to the Givat Shmuel parks during the summer weeks due to overcrowding in Bnei Brak’s parks.

    The two parks in question are the Ramon and Elkana parks, and entry to them will be restricted only to city residents between July 23 and August 16 from four o’clock in the afternoon to ten o’clock at night, when children’s activities will be staged.

    Anyone seeking to enter at those times will need to present a city-residents cards which are now being distributed.

    The decision was seen as discriminatory against the haredi community, leading to a firestorm of protest on Facebook where the Givat Shmuel Municipality posted about the new regulations, and eventually reaching the ears of haredi leaders who have vigorously protested the decision.

    One man writing on the Facebook post described the policy as “antisemitism” while another described it as “racist.”

    Others welcomed the move, with one man writing that “welcoming guests” requires the guests to behave accordingly.

    “The parks are for the benefit of the city residents and built through the municipal taxes of those residents, and not for those residents to discover that the park is always with residents from another city.”

    Another woman said that it was “not fair that at peak times there is no space in our public parks for which we pay our municipal taxes,” and that the Bnei Brak Municipality should build decent parks for the city’s children.

    One Givat Shmuel resident was critical of the policy saying that the city’s residents should just admit they don’t like having haredim up close, while another said it sent a message not to share and not to care for others.

    “We have the fortune to live in a city which builds parks and where we can afford high municipal taxes. Instead of enjoying them with the residents of other cities who have less, we restrict them. Very sad.

    This is not the education I want to give to my children. One of the foundations of the Jewish people is the kindness to think of others,” he wrote.

    In response to the furor, the Givat Shmuel Municipal Authority rejected the notion that its policy was racist or antisemitic, calling such accusations “inappropriate” and arguing that the policy “is not targeted against any specific sector but rather in a comprehensive manner against all non-residents.”

    It also pointed out that the policy was only in place for a specific and limited time period since the capacity of the parks is too small for the number of people coming to them at these times.

    United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, together with Shas MK Yinon Azoulay, submitted a motion to the agenda in the Knesset on Monday, saying the policy was possibly illegal and besmirched the haredi community.

    Givat Shmuel is not the first municipal authority to enact such policies. Raanana began charging non-residents an entrance fee to the park in 2000, and the law was subsequently ammended to prevent such a policy following legal pressure.

    In 2014, Modi’in restricted non-residents from using its Anabeh Park during the intermediary days of Passover and Succot, largely because of the large number of haredi residents of Modi’in Illit who came to the park on such days.


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    22 Comments
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    elyeh
    Noble Member
    elyeh
    5 years ago

    Why does Bnei Brak not build parks?

    5 years ago

    Who funds these parks? It sounds like its funded directly thru Givat shmuel and not the greater israeli govt? If that’s the case then it should be strictly for Givat shmuel residents. And there is nothing anti charedi about that. Charedim are invited to move to Givat Shmuel if they’d like to use that park. Unless it funded by the greater Israeli govt then perhaps you can argue its federal park.

    MAYERFREUND
    MAYERFREUND
    5 years ago

    This reminds me of the kristallnacht rules in germany 1939 “juda farbitten”.
    Since the arabs and other gentiles don’t have the same rules, Is this a anti semitic country?
    Maybe this country is run by nazies who knows.

    misslydia128
    misslydia128
    5 years ago

    I don’t know the demographics of Givat Shmuel, but I have yet to see a situation where haredi residents would welcome outsiders to their facilities, dressed in secular clothing styles. In addition to not being welcomed, they would be verbally and physically abused.

    5 years ago

    hopefully, the sinas chinam will subside soon, but let’s not forget that overcrowding is a bracha. when the parks were just being built, by likely holocaust survivors, trees were a majority in the area, not kids

    5 years ago

    I wish we could stop the hoards of people who are flooding our park in gimmel from other places. The bus drops them right there, the kids have a blast and the mommies leave their trash wherever they feel like it: dirty diapers, half eaten sandwiches, broken bottles, etc. Then they go home only to come back to do it all over again the next day. Meanwhile, the brand new park looks like the city dump and it is a health hazard, flies all over, wild dogs eat the leftovers and our esteemed Mayor doesn’t do a thing. Ever so often he sends a cleanup crew. So i sympathize with the people of Giva’at Shmuel. Maybe their parks are also disgusting because visitors won’t foul their own back yards.

    savtat
    savtat
    5 years ago

    When I was a little girl in Brooklyn, c. 1950s, there were 9 inches of garbage you had to wade through to get across the street. There were brown bags, candy wrappers, beer bottles, etc…. then, they instituted a summons for littering, and voila, the problem was gone!

    When one comes as a guest to a neighborhood park, you must act with finesse and civility. It would be a super idea for the government in Bnai Brak to build beautiful parks for their children also.

    Perhaps there could be a friendly way to welcome children from other neighborhoods. Perhaps the people from Bnai Brak could invite the children from Givat Shmuel to their succah parties????

    5 years ago

    This is old news and should be removed. The decision to close the park to outsiders has since been rescinded and everyone is welcome to use the parks anytime from now on.

    yosher
    yosher
    5 years ago

    What a Chillul Hashem! Can’t we behave with Kovod Habrios? Stop blaming prejudice for the rejection of primitive and unmannerly chareidi behavior. KOVOD HABRIOS!

    5 years ago

    I personally am against the new rulings although I have see the mess that the charedim leave behind in the park. The reason there are no parks in Bnei Brak is the same reason there are no pizza shops, ice cream or coffee shops. The Rabbis don’t want the mixing of men and women, girls and boys. The residents of Bnei Brak should go to their Rabbis and the municipality and demand that they have the same services available to every other Israeli and that is parks for the children. This is more of an internal problem between the charedim and their Rabbis.Why punish small children for the follies and hanguups of the adults.They deserve nice parks near their homes just as the children of Givat Shmuel do.