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Catriel Lev
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Mar 13, 2011

Serious Corruption Charges Against Bet Shemesh Mayor Abutbul

Bet Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul from the Shas party has been accused of serious political corruption, including pressuring a Yeshivah to fire a teacher who was also a political activist in opposition to the Mayor! The political activist, Dov Lipman, filed a Police complaint, and a complaint to the National Auditor of Israel (Mevaker HaMedinah), charging that the Mayor had interfered in the decision making process of the Yeshivah leading to Lipman's contract as a teacher at the Yeshivah where he has been teaching for five years being terminated as of the coming school year!

I have uploaded the article (in Hebrew) about this from a local Bet Shemesh newspaper (Tmura), and it can be viewed here:


I must add, as I noted in the comments, that, unfortunately, this type of behavior is not new to Bet Shemesh and is known to have been exhibited by a former Bet Shemesh Mayor. Certain Yeshivot warned members of their staffs not to appear at political rallies and the like, for fear that that the Mayor would not grant permits needed by the Yeshivah if staff members were seen at events held in opposition to that Mayor!

It is time to stop the corruption, no matter who is the Mayor. Our public figures must perform in accordance with basic ethical standards!

We can only hope that these efforts to stamp out corruption in our city government will be successful.

3 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, this type of behavior is not new to Bet Shemesh and is known to have been exhibited by a former Bet Shemesh Mayor. Certain Yeshivot warned members of their staffs not to appear at political rallies and the like, for fear that that the Mayor would not grant permits needed by the Yeshivah if staff members were seen at events held in opposition to that Mayor!

    It is time to stop the corruption, no matter who is the Mayor. Our public figures must perform in accordance with basic ethical standards!

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  2. I was just wondering, if pressure has been put on Reshit by the Dati Leumi community not to give in to the Mayor's demand. I imagine Reshit rely on donations from abroad, and they also run a simcha hall (Genesis), which could be boycotted. Of course, such a move could backfire, and move them into the arms of the Chareidim,

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  3. There have been, as I noted above, some similar cases in the past with at least one previous mayor; and usually the Yeshivah feels itself "between the hammer and the anvil", and feels that it cannot do anything productive about the situation. So in this case, Dov Lipman's filing a Police complaint and a Mevaker HaMedinah complaint may be the best way to combat the problem.

    It is true that the Yeshivot should actually always resist these overtures by mayors, but they fear the restriction on their Torah activities that the mayor may initiate if they appear to be opposing him (the mayor can control in some way or another just about anything that relates to permits for building or expansion in the city).

    It is true that this is a sort of wishy-washy response morally, and they should just oppose such mayoral overtures and file their own complaints against the mayor and also publicize the unethical behavior of the mayor); but it appears that in the real-life world these things don't happen this way.

    I know that Dov Lipman is definitely trying NOT to harm the Yeshivah where he has been teaching and wants to protect it; however, it indeed may bear some of the moral responsibility for what has happened, just as did other Yeshivot who "knuckled under" to the pressure of previous mayors.

    Since I am not involved in the actual political system, but only serve as a "gadfly", urging politicians to behave more ethically; I cannot really gauge what effect pressuring Reishit would have. However, I know that Dov Lipman does not want to take that route; and, since he is the major injured party here, I feel that I it is proper for me just to support the route he is taking.

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