About a thousand people came to Yona Yahav's victory event, an event that marks the end of the campaign and the beginning of work with the entry of Yahav and his team into the Haifa municipality. The event was held in the evening of Thursday, 21/3/24, in the Yama Hall, in front of the beach. The event began with a reception - everyone hugged everyone... the coalition partners, the supporters, the friends, the donors, the campaign managers, ordinary residents and the journalists. The beer was poured from the kegs and the general mood was upbeat.
Yahav and his staff chose the Chai Pa team as partners in publishing the digital campaign to the Haifa public. You, our readers, must have seen the campaign live here. We thank Yona Yahav and his team for trusting in the Hai Pa system.
◄ Watch Yona Yahav's speech
Yona Yahav's full speech - the evening of recognition for activists:
Good evening dear friends, friends and elected council members, beloved Haifaites and Haifaites.
I'll start with the bottom line - thank you!
I wouldn't have done it without you!
I stand here on behalf of the faces and names of good people I met along the way, and good women who have been walking with me for a long time. People who believed even when the odds didn't seem high, continued to believe and follow the path and your right, with joint forces we did a great thing.
I am especially excited to see here also a esteemed group of disabled and wounded IDF soldiers, including those who fought with the "Iron Swords". Great pride that you are here with us, the soldiers of the land and the heroes of Israel!
girlfriends and friends,
Haifa is at one of the critical points of time it has known.
I enter my role to serve, guide and lead her with love, determination and experience.
I agree to meet all my commitments to the voter in all areas of life. From preparing the city to deal with any security scenario, to growth and renewal that will return Haifa to its natural place as the capital of the northern metropolis!
In the last few days I met with the heads of the army and the security establishment, who will be full partners in the implementation of my plans for the defense of the city.
As I promised - I formed a special team whose goal is to eliminate the pig phenomenon from the city within 90 days.
I promised and I will do so!
I will work in cooperation with nature and the environment. The pigs' home will once again be in the wadis, while the residents of Haifa will once again be able to travel safely.
Another urgent issue that is on my desk is the treatment of polluting factories in Haifa Bay. As I promised, the polluting factories have all left the Gulf!
Besides the quality of life that is damaged due to the air pollution, there is also a security urgency to promote the evacuation of the factories. I will lead this fight with determination, together with the heads of nearby authorities and environmental factors.
Along with the security preparations, I also started working on the renewal of the city: renewing the roads and sidewalks all over Haifa, speeding up construction plans that were stuck in the engineering administration,
All this is done while maintaining the beauty and character of Haifa.
Many tasks are still on the agenda: upgrading the municipal education system, bringing back major cultural events and strengthening Haifa as a home for all the religions and communities living in it - a city that is a sign and example of life in partnership, tolerance and brotherhood.
A city that is pluralistic and liberal. A city where everyone can feel at home.
The election campaign is over and I'm putting the political sediment behind - from now on we are all one Haifa!
When the election campaign is over, the mayor has it
Two options for action: act harshly or be conciliatory.
I adopt the conciliatory approach - I aim to behave with respect and fairness to all the newly elected.
I intend to have a full overlap with the outgoing mayor Einat Kalish Rotem, and I will thank her for leading the city in the last five years.
I intend to be the mayor of K.V.L.M. of religious and secular, of Jews and Arabs.
This is my way, this is my belief and this is the way and character of Haifa.
Naturally, there are high expectations of the city's residents for my return to the position of mayor. I am aware of this, but we must admit that it is a long way. There is no hocus pocus and no magic.
We have restored the trust of the government ministries and now I will make sure that there are indeed actions in practice. I will ask all government ministries for their commitment to Haifa.
Haifa FIRST! – Haifa FIRST!
In conclusion, I would like to wish all of us and especially the IDF soldiers who fight for us, and the 134 abductees who are still in Hamas captivity that they will soon return to their families safe and sound!
I want to wish the Arab residents of the city "Ramadan Kareem". For Christians who celebrate the Palm Festival on Sunday - Happy Palm Festival. And for us Jews who will celebrate Purim this week - happy Purim - those who enter Adar multiply with joy!
Thank you all for the trust and support.
Good night from beautiful Haifa!
Photos of the appreciation evening for activists
"rise and succeed"! The honorable Mr. Yona Yahav, the beloved and professional mayor, whom the city's residents learned to appreciate more after the absence of a term1!
The city of "the beautiful Haifa" is a sight to receive from now on the title it deserves: "metropolitan city" in light of its size and values: education, health, culture, sports and art and tourism - between the green "Carmel" and the blue "sea"...!😍✨️💕
"On, and the success" from now on...! The honorable Mr. Yona Yahav - Mayor of the beautiful Meropolin "Haifa"!
You and your new deputy - Mr. Avihu Han! = "winning pair"!@#😍✨️💕
Jonah We hope that the city engineer goes home it's time this city has no vision with such a person. Your friends on the coalition bench claimed that he will go home, so let's wait to see when he will go along with all those that Klish brought with her from the conservation department and others who were brought to other positions and in the end they were transferred to become department managers only because the finance committee discovered that they were absorbed not according to the standard. And there are a few more new ones who were just recently taken in who need to go home
And about the arson - keep quiet
I think the city is changing demographically.
In 2000, after large waves of immigration from Brahm to the city, Arabs numbered 8.6% of the city's residents.
9.6% in 2015, 10.8% in 2014, 12% already in 2020...
The representation of the Arab parties in the council in the last elections increased twofold. For example, the Balad movement, which even in the national elections remained just below the percentage of obstruction, passed here in Haifa, for comparison, Yoav Ramati's party, which was supported by Minister Ben Gabir, did not pass the percentage of obstruction at all. What does this mean about the distribution of the vote according to national/religious affiliation?? Does one side point to doves and the other to hawks?
Mr. Yona Yahav, remember that you represent here a city with a Jewish history of thousands of years.
So a liberal city - of course. Equal rights for all residents regardless of who they are - of course. But above all, in my opinion, it is most important to preserve the absolute Jewish and Zionist majority in it.
The Haifa "liberal" "patriot" who until a few months ago participated in demonstrations against our failed government is now proud of bringing back this bad government to continue destroying our beloved Haifa.
time will tell.
Thank you for agreeing to come back. The city is waiting for your restoration
A speech that is characterized by a lack of direction, the huge past failure in the management and lack of management of the Haifa municipality under Gadi Margalit will continue - a failure for which the residents of Haifa are paying in their pockets and health and in the ongoing destruction of Haifa, which declined economically-business, socially and security under Yahav who was wise in all sections.
His choice is a serious and unfortunate oversight. He has no rabbits to pull, indeed no hocus pocus due to twenty years of colossal failure. And those who fail cannot correct. It is to the point that after Gadi Margalit they brought in the director of the computer systems department in the municipality, she demanded 10 million shekels, she said that she found a municipal manager who did not upgrade systems, who did not create cyber protection, an outdated municipal website, hacked systems, work on a Windows system that was vulnerable and hundreds of old computers that were not upgraded. And this failure Yahav re-appointed CEO. Because everything with him is shaky and Corbyism. Don't believe the words of sweetness and niceness - this is not the man. It's a beautiful costume for the elections. And here on Purim he came up with the costume and then it was removed.
We will see you handling the prevention of the establishment of a distillery port (many times more polluting than the existing one) in the Gulf. And good luck to all of us
17 minutes speech? Do like Rapol: 4 rows. And let's go to work. In 17 minutes you could repair a road.