Haifa democracy in retreat • Commentary • Gila Livni Zamir

While working in the Knesset, I was exposed to the consumption culture of the live Knesset broadcasts. As you know, Knesset meetings and Knesset committee meetings are broadcast live, alongside commentary, interviews and historical documentation. There are more people watching them on a regular basis than we can imagine, and this is their ability to be updated on what is going on in the House of Representatives without being present at the meetings. This is a basic right in a democratic country!

Despite democracy, we sometimes feel that we are hostages in the hands of the politicians, who were elected to represent the people. We do not know what they are really doing and it is of great importance to be able to watch in real time what is happening in the House of Representatives in order to understand what kind of reality we live in.  

Excessive provocation performances
The broadcasts from the Knesset and the committees also allow Hakim and Hakim to show their public what they stand for, what they think and support in order to sharpen their position and their public and political mission for which they were sent to the Knesset. Each and every one according to his style and those who exaggerate with provocation performances that cross the border, are handled by security guards who maintain order and remove the rioters without discrimination and without bias, after the Speaker of the Knesset or the Chairman of the Committee has given the notices stipulated in the regulations. For a broad understanding, you should watch the broadcasts from the British House of Representatives, they are just as colorful.

The live broadcasts from Haifa City Council meetings
Under the current leadership of the municipality, the broadcasts are excellent news for an era of transparency - which was promised and kept by Dr. Einat Kalish Rotem, as part of her election promise. The promise of transparency joined the general good news for a new era of freshness, innovation, the perspective of the resident and the importance of civic involvement in the political reality and the new leadership in the city Haifa. Who but she, who rose to her position from civic involvement and environmental struggles, to understand the importance of residents' involvement in shaping the face of their city and setting the agenda for life in Haifa?

Transparency is a broad concept
Transparency includes the accessibility and ability of citizens to understand and know in real time what is going on in the avenue of government: national or local. This is the basic right of residents in a democratic reality, to understand the reality of their lives and to receive information and explanations. This was the promise in the change of government and it probably also motivated many to come and vote for the change of the previous reality that we were tired of, a change that Klish promised.

The values ​​of democracy in the city of Haifa and its response to the media
Promises on the one hand and reality on the other - since the government changed, it seems that the implementation of the values ​​of democracy is not easy for the representatives of the new government. There is a sense of déjà vu to Yahav's previous terms: a permanent group with the same names that is angry at criticism and recites slogans of admiration and praise for the mayor in every statement, post, or discussion on social networks. Requests for information within the framework of freedom of information are met with a lack of response or the need to apply really hard pressure to accept the obvious. There is nothing to talk about spokespeople, many journalists who contact the municipality asking for an answer to various issues that come up in the media, report being completely ignored.

Team
Since the change of government in Haifa, there have been several crises in the city: the most serious of them is the crisis of summer camps in gardens that has not yet ended. Many parents are angry and talk in small talk, on social media and say that they have learned the lesson for the next elections, after the mayor's office or its representatives entrusted with the issue did not speak to them despite countless requests, even though the state of lawlessness in the summer camps still continues, putting small children and toddlers at real risk. The flag crisis in the library, the non-tender contract with Attorney Haddad, the appointment of consultants, the Raja Zatra crisis, Mac Jesus, the pyramid and the crisis in front of the community of artists and then the poets, the parking on the beach, the management of transportation on Independence Day, the speech on Memorial Day, the school reading Circles in the name of the late Rachel Metuki, the sanitation workers' strike, the threat of a demonstration by business owners on Ben Gurion Boulevard, and more. There was no explanation for any crisis on behalf of the mayor's office, no crisis was handled in a dignified manner, growing insights and a desire for cooperation. The characteristic is a show of forcefulness, silence, digging into the existing situation without any attempt to fix it. This usually ends with the municipality's surrender and withdrawal.

Haifa Municipality in a series of crises

The last city council meeting was a display of governmental and leadership chaos
It is not clear why Mayor Einat Kalish Rotem did not come to the meeting. Lahi Fe learned from sources close to Kalish that the mayor locked herself in her office and watched the meeting on video broadcast by spokesmen from the discussion hall, but the spokeswomen of the Haifa municipality refused to officially confirm this and as usual refused to comment on this issue as well. The Haifa public deserves an explanation of where the mayor was at the time. Instead of speaking as a leader about the "elephant in the room", or even treating with equanimity the flags of pride presented by the opposition, she was simply not there. The representative of the Jewish Home, Yoav Ramati, cracked his provocative show in front of the placement of the pride flags that Yossi Shalom placed on his table members of the city council. At this point, it was appropriate to warn the hawks, who were rampaging in the hearing hall, and to remove them from the hall by the security guards.

This is how Yossi Shalom managed to blow up a yeshiva by coalition members
The interesting thing is that when the uproar increased, companies and coalition members also rushed to equip themselves with pride flags and shout their opinion at Yoav Ramati, meaning that Yossi Shalom, a sophisticated opposition member, actually managed to blow up the city council meeting with the kind assistance of the coalition members while he wisely exploited the large gaps that exist within the coalition the municipal Yossi Shalom knew that once he managed to place flags, no one would dare to remove them in front of the many cameras that were in the hall. The same goes for Yoav Ramati, because no one would dare to remove from the "Patriot" hall carrying the Israeli flag. Nachshon Tzuk had no choice but to disperse the yeshiva and grant a knockout victory to the opposition in general and the gay community in particular. Ramati also received a good platform and some good points from his voters from the religious right-wing public. The council members made sure to be interviewed face to face and give their honest opinion on Ramati's actions. Suddenly we saw in front of us the unity of opinion of the coalition with the opposition, literally "the days of the Messiah have arrived"!

Improper management of the session and the interruption of the video broadcasts
The idyll of cooperation against Yoav Ramati's provocation did not last long. Mayor Nachshon Tzuk closed the meeting and the next morning a message came out from Einat Kalish Rotem's office that as of now, the city council broadcasts will not be broadcast live as if the problem was the live broadcast and not a lack of leadership and improper management of the meeting.

Prohibition of freedom of speech?
Canceling the live broadcasts is like banning freedom of expression and protest because it is unpleasant to hear criticism. Protests and demonstrations disturb public peace and create a sense of threat. This suits regimes that silence any criticism of themselves and make democracy a risk. Can we conceive of such an elementary right being banned here in Israel in the name of the desire to create an illusion of a nice and orderly reality?

As of today, the state of democracy in Haifa is in serious retreat
In Haifa there is no organized information and information for the public. Journalists from all the local media as well as from Haifa complain about the lack of response from the Haifa municipality on a variety of municipal issues that require a response to the resident. Requests under the auspices of freedom of information to the public are not answered, there are no responses to the media and the public is not aware of and knows the position of the local government and its intentions, there are almost no interviews in the media and what does take place, however, looks like a campaign of flattery and compliments, the only information on behalf of the municipality is on the Aront platform known in the public as "Pravdont" p. Q The communist expression that showed the public that everything is good. Every now and then a post or Twitter appears on behalf of Mayor Einat Kalish Rotem as a sort of one-sided message and now the broadcasts from the city council will also be blocked from the public.

A big city leader
During Yahav's time, who was a champion of public relations and communication, an article penned by him was published How social networks beat traditional media, crushed the advocacy on his behalf and created a change in the public's perception of Yahav. The article was written while I was part of the "Life in Haifa" faction and part of the advocacy that promoted Einat to the goal he reached in 2018 - the mayorship. This was our tool to defeat the virtual reality - according to Yahav and bring the truth to the attention of the general public.
Indeed, Einat Kalish Rotem should understand that it is not possible to control the public's consciousness in a reality where freedom of expression and protest is still reserved for the public. To be sure, in an era where everyone who owns a cell phone is a walking broadcasting station. Beyond that, she was chosen to be the leader of a large city in a democratic country and she must meet this expectation.