The tensions between chareidim and Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav have reached a new high, after Yahav arrived Wednesday for a “planting” ceremony on Tu B’Shevat along with hundreds of schoolchildren in the Kiryat Shmuel neighborhood of the city. Excluded from the event were the children of Yeshiva Netivot Moshe, a chareidi yeshiva.

About 70 children from each school were chosen to participate in the planting ceremony in Kiryat Shmuel. Among the schools that were invited were the Chabad schools and Aharon HaRoeh boys and girl’s schools. Following the exclusion of the children of Netivot Moshe, the school’s PTA sent a harsh letter to the mayor in which they claimed that children were discriminated against because of extraneous considerations.

In their letter, the parents wrote: “Every year the municipality of Haifa holds a planting ceremony on Tu B’Shevat around the city.

“I would like to emphasize to you that this year’s ceremony was held in Kiryat Shmuel for the children of the neighborhood schools (Chabad, Aaron HaRoeh boys and girls). It is not enough that you leave school students without a proper place of study for years, even in a neighborhood and value-sharing experience like Tu B’Shevat, you continue to use this method of deliberate discrimination against our young children,” the parents complain in their letter.

The parents note that “Netivot Moshe students, like all other children in Israel, would be happy to participate in this event, and we are deeply concerned that you are involving extraneous considerations in running the municipal education system and this has us most concerned”.

Chareidi Councilman Miki Alper told Kikar Shabbos News that the reality is the young innocent children have become targets for cheap discrimination.

City Hall officials deny any accusations of discrimination, explaining only state schools were invited to the Tu B’Shevat events and it had nothing to do with discriminating against chareidim.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)