In the city council elections, which will be held on October 31, 2023, the pensioners' lobby faction for the city council will present changes to the list at the request of the list's chairman, Eli Landau. In first place will be placed Israel Savion. In second place is the former head of the welfare department in the municipality - Pini Wagman, and in third place - Eli Landau. In places 4 and 5 women will be placed, whose name has not yet been published.
Interview with Israel Savion - Chairman of the Retirees' faction
Israel Savion was the former CEO of Haifa Municipality, holder of the education and culture portfolio and chairman of the theater, former CEO of the Grand Canyon. He held a long list of positions in the public and private sectors. Savion is also a board member of the Friends of the Bnei Zion Medical Center.
Why do you believe in the pensioners faction?
I responded to the appeal of Eli Landau and the management of the pensioners' lobby to be at the top of the list. I see this as an "order of eight" in reserve for the benefit of the senior citizens of Haifa. I will put my experience in the public interest. I believe that the older population will support us and the young people will also vote for us, so that the grandparents will be well.
What do you plan to do next term?
We are currently in the midst of formulating the platform and work plans. We believe that the senior citizens will understand the vitality of a large and powerful faction. The more mandates there are, the more achievements there will be for senior citizens. That's why we hope that the senior citizens and not only them will understand the importance of voting "yes" for the city council.
Increasing personal security
Savion: What is most important to us is to work to increase the personal security of senior citizens in the public space and in their homes. The plague of swine hurts the older population, who are afraid to walk alone in the evening.
Another thing is the implementation of the city council's decision on the establishment of the Senior Citizens Authority, in order to expand the services that we are obligated to provide to senior citizens. The senior citizens are over 20% of the city's population, so they deserve it by law and not by grace.
We will continue to demand budgets and budgeting of cultural activities for senior citizens. We will demand continued free parking in blue and white. We will work to ensure that senior citizens receive a discount on travel in the Carmel tunnels.
We will work to get the municipal health committee to show active involvement in improving the health services of all the funds.
We will demand development budgets for the Milav clubs (a municipal corporation, which operates a variety of programs for retirees). Today there are 18 Milav clubs and it is time for the budget of the Milav club network to be expanded and be much larger than it has been until now.
The post offices gradually disappeared
We will work resolutely to improve postal and bank services in order to make it easier for the older population to receive these services. The postal authority and the banks do not count the senior citizen and the digital services have supplanted the services of the frontal services.
To get to a post office you have to go online and book an appointment, and not every citizen knows how to do that. We want to improve the services of the elderly population. Our faction will be actively involved in improving the service for the elderly population.
the loneliness
We will also work in the field of caring for elderly people who are in need and suffer from loneliness. We have seen people who ended their lives alone between 4 walls, and we will find a mechanism for contacting and monitoring senior citizens, who are lonely and in distress, including financial distress, and we will set up a volunteer unit of senior citizens who are willing to give and share their experience with people who are lonely and under siege.
We, within the authority, will also establish a righteous bank of service providers to reduce the phenomenon of elderly people who need services and service providers come and cheat them. Of course, in cooperation with the mayor who chooses, we will improve accessibility in all public institutions for the benefit of senior citizens, including public transportation. The faction you choose will be an activist faction, which sees before its eyes the interests of the senior citizens, who deserve the best after all the contribution in their years of life up to 120.
Will you tell your supporters who to choose for mayor?
As of today, there is a decision by the lobby management not to express support for one or another candidate. We would like to cooperate with whoever chooses. We hope that the elected mayor will understand that the elderly population is not a burden but an asset.
Chairman of the Retirees' Lobby Eli Landau: "The most difficult problem of the elderly population is loneliness"
In the next elections, the person who until now was the head of the retirees' faction, council member Eli Landau (91 years old), will be in third place on the list.
Have you started preparing for the October elections?
We have established headquarters and have a database of 5,000 registered members. We are contacting all 5,000 to make sure they are still our supporters. We are in continuous contact with the people with the help of the emails. It is important for us right now to update and check all things and talk personally with everyone.
At the moment there is no decision on who we will support for mayor
We have a neat platform that we sent to members to get feedback. We have a board, which operates all year round, 15 people, who meet at least twice a month. We have drawn up a document that we will send to all the candidates for mayor in order to see how they will treat retirees. We currently have a decision not to support any candidate for mayor, but we want to check how the candidates will treat the rights of senior citizens. We will distribute the answers among our supporters, who will decide who to choose for mayor.
I am the oldest member of the council in Israel, this is my fourth council, and also in terms of age I am the oldest (I passed the age of 91).
What are your plans for the next semester?
We want to promote several topics. The first issue is a law that states that there is a 30% property tax discount for a senior citizen on the first 100 square meters. Today in Haifa the discount is 25% and according to the law it can be increased to 30% subject to a decision by the city council. Today if a retiree applies and asks for the discount to be increased From 25% to 30%, the pensioner's income is examined and it is possible to approve 30%, we believe that there is no need for an income test and every pensioner in the city should be automatically approved for 30%.
Asking for discounts and concessions
Today a senior citizen can travel for free on public transportation and we think that a senior citizen should also get a discount in the Carmel tunnels. Another issue is to increase cultural discounts. According to the Senior Citizens Law, senior citizens are entitled to a 50% discount on shows in municipal halls. The problem with this is that according to the law if an outside party rents a municipal hall, the senior citizen will not receive a discount on the cultural event and this is not proper.
Leave the elderly in the city
Haifa is an aging city, more than 22% of the city's population is over the age of 65. The city lacks sheltered homes (nursing places). The older population moves to nursing homes outside of Haifa and this makes it difficult for their children. It is important that the elderly can stay in the city.
You are 91 years old and so active and vital. Do you have any tips for us?
The most important thing for a person who has retired from work is not to stay at home within the four walls, but to find employment, get up in the morning, get dressed, meet friends and it doesn't matter if in a coffee shop or in one of Mila's clubs. There are excellent programs there. The worst thing is loneliness because It causes senility and causes people to end their lives in an unpleasant way. Loneliness is the greatest enemy of the elderly.
I am also the chairman of the MilB. One of our plans was to have a Shabbat reception on Fridays for individual citizens in the afternoon with a toast, so that they would feel like they have a family, but this did not come to fruition.
May all the plans for the senior citizens be fulfilled. I suggest that high school students from the age of 16 and on adopt an elderly person whom they will come to visit after training by social workers
Please choose. The most important thing is to choose who is good. think carefully. First. Good morning
It's kind of like a message from the mafia soldiers who haven't decided who will be the boss to command them.
Gentlemen, this is exactly the mafia.
Neither Yahav nor Savion. They destroyed Haifa enough.
Eli Landau would do well if he gets out of council life along with his blind support of the destructive illegal construction being carried out in Carmel under the auspices of TMA 38 which is approved in industrial succession based on the false statements of the elderly municipal engineer.
The "guardian of the elderly" would do well if he learns before his wrong votes in the municipal planning committees the issue of construction that is against the law, which entails serious harm to the elderly following the destruction of the environmental fabric in which they want to live.
Dear Mr. Landau, what have you done for the pensioners?!
We may be old, but not stupid. We will not vote for you Savion. Your time has passed. Go and take Yahav with you too. Haifa needs a change.
As an elder, Yahav and Sabion are gossips and they are the ones who represent Yahav and Sabion. I don't know who I will vote for but I am sure and know who I will not vote for. Neither Lihav nor Lesbion.
Haifa is the oldest city in the country. Only a young and talented mayor will be able to change that. Otherwise we will be stuck forever with Savion and his partners.
Elderly people fell on Haifa. Yahav, Savion...what a disaster.
Come on...Savion was and remains Yona Yahav's best and closest friend...He was one of Yahav's biggest supporters in the previous elections and fought against Klish the entire term...Yahav and Sabion are one.