Mission Report from Ira Kerem

12th Nov: The last 36 hours have been pretty eventful. On the 11th, 70 visitors from Tucson and Phoenix came to visit the region. We organized 3 different simultaneous routes (which is always a challenge) but, except for difficulty sticking to the schedule, the visit went well. People from the communities got to see where some of their supplemental and regular overseas funds went.

Hila Hamami explaining about youth in Hof Ashkelon

Greetings were given by Itai, Revital, Yair Farjoun - the head of the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, Dvora, Yaffa Cohen, and Rachel. Plaques were unveiled at the Hof Ashkelon White Room, the Emergency Night Health Clinic in Kiryat Malachi, and at the Science Center - all recipients of supplemental funding from different TIPS communities.

The municipalities gave gifts to some of the major donors of supplemental projects - Herschel and Jill Rosenzweig, Phyllis Maizlish, Diane and Ron Weintraub.

Phoenix delegation in Hof Ashkelon
Each of the three buses gained a different insight - a panel discussion about children at risk by those who are charged with providing services to that population, a dialogue with youth who benefited from a tiyul to help them better face the tension at the height of the missile attacks on the southernmost part of Hof Ashkelon, a view of Netiv Ha'asara, a stop at the Yedid Center and a description of projects that serve the Ethiopian population, and a view of other projects.

A view of the protective wall between Moshav Netiv Haasara and the Gaza border, to protect the moshav from sniper fire and mortar shells. The wall is not effective against rocket attacks as the rockets go over the wall.

Of course, this was election day and before departure from KM, most of the visitors were taken to a local pollbooth set in the Amal High School and shown how people vote for mayor and for the town council.

Kiryat Malachi resident putting his vote in the election box

Election Report from Ira Kerem

11th November was Municipal Election Day in Kiryat Malachi. The incumbent mayor, Moti Malka, won 85% of the vote - which is definitely an endorsement of his policies which include active participation with TIPS.

Moti Malka posting his vote

There are 13 members of the city council and the counting is not final but it looks like Moti's independent NES party will win 4 or 5 seats; the National Religious Party will win 2 seats; Shas - the Sephardi very religious party-1 or 2 seats; Labor - 1 or 2 seats; Paz - a small independent party - 1 seat; the Ethiopians had two parties and each one won 1 - Beilinish Ayech, a leading figure amongst the Ethiopians who was once part of the partnership's women's leadership program won one of those seats. Ya'akov who volunteers every day in Yedid helping Ethiopians was second on Beilinish's party list and who came to talk to us in the middle of the election campaign was second on the list and just missed winning a seat.

Nadav Weizman, the brother of Ron Weizman, the director of the community center, ran as the candidate of the Likud and finished with only about 15% of the vote. The Likud did not get a candidate into the city council. In any case, the mayor won an overwhelming vote of confidence. Our relationship with him has improved dramatically in the last 3 years and I believe will only become more mutually beneficial in the future.

Municipal Elections 11.11.08

Municipal Election Day has come and gone. Motti Malka (Kadima) will continue for a second term as Mayor of Kiryat Malachi after winning 84% of the vote.

Moti Malka, Mayor of Kiryat Malachi Municipality

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(The Head of Hof Ashkelon, Yair Farjoun, was elected last year in the regional council elections.)

Yair Farjoun, Mayor of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council,

elected last year