Charged illegally - will pay 2 million shekels to 54 synagogues

A settlement agreement approved last week by the full City Council in Beit Shemesh reveals: the sum of two million shekels, which the city undertook to transfer for public purposes in the city, following the collection of illegal municipal taxes - will be transferred to 54 different synagogues, as reported by 'Kalkalist'.

The story begins with a class action lawsuit filed by Moshe and Sarit Cohen to the Administrative Court in Jerusalem in 2008. According to the couple, the municipality went beyond the provisions of the "freeze laws" which did not allow the authorities to raise the property tax collection in their jurisdiction, and from 2004 collected additional funds from any resident of the city.

According to what was presented in the claim shows that the city collected nearly 5 million in excess of the residents of Beit Shemesh, for two years, until 2006, and in subsequent years. The municipality argued that the amounts collected were to increase its revenue, adding that in light of the difficult economic situation there was a real difficulty to return the money to the public, even if the claim would have been accepted.

In 2009, a settlement agreement was reached between the parties according to which the city would return 41% of the amount, i.e. 2 million shekels to residents of the city. But because this was a negligible sum for each resident it was determined that the money will be transferred for the benefit of the general public.

Most of the amount, as revealed by Kalkalist, will be transferred to 54 synagogues in an equal distribution of money, that is about 34 thousand shekels each synagogue. While only 100 thousand shekels were transferred for a consolation shed construction at a cemetery in the city, and 50 thousand shekels were transferred to purchases of equipment for the youth club of Ethiopians on Narkis Street.

"Since most of the members of the group are observant and there is an actual shortage of synagogues in the city, and since the synagogues serve the entire population of the city, among others, as a culture and meeting place for families, halls for holding events such as celebrations, festive meals, etc. - the municipality has released in all the local papers a call for applications for different complements in synagogues buildings all over the city," the agreement reads.

"The entire procedure was unfit from beginning, it started with collecting property taxes illegally and reached the agreement," said Moti Cohen, a member of the City Council on behalf of the opposition, to Kalkalist. He says there was collection of approximately NIS 160 from each home in Beit Shemesh. According to him, "This lawsuit is a directed claim. If they want to transfer money to private synagogues how would they do it? In the plenum they can not confirm this, then they produce a hole in the budget and gain twice."

Beit Shemesh municipality said in response: "The one who runs the case is the State Attorney who is not a religious person, and the case was dealt with in court for several years. Through the years at least twice notices were advertised in newspapers in Beit Shemesh so that the residents would share in the procedure. Not all the money went to synagogues , part of it went to the cemetery and youth club. The vast majority of the city consists of religious people. Every neighborhood has synagogues, some for the traditional public or religious - national. If they would come and say that everything is going

to Haredim, then fine, but it serves everyone and this is a community need and acceptable community institution. True, there are countless other purposes, but this is a fair and equal form of distribution approved by the court, it was not approved at the dead of night. Every synagogue which submitted an application received, we did not reject any of them and there are about 50 synagogues."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!