Weekly Update 69

January 9, 2026

Hello everyone,

Thank you to those of you who have written and continue to write words of thanks and encouragement to me. It really gives me strength. Because I am mainly facing struggles against power, boycotts, and the obedience of coalition members and council staff.

I’m asking again—please add friends to the newsletter. It’s a small effort on your part that will strengthen me and promote transparency in the face of those in power. I’ve added the option to receive updates via WhatsApp, so you can also send me your phone numbers or email addresses.

Join the “Attending Council Meetings” initiative. Here’s the link: https://forms.gle/U8ERKf8a97R7PQ5H9. That way, we’ll know to remind you and send you the agenda. But you can also attend without registering.

• First topic: Updates from this week’s council meeting.
• Second topic: A wave of car break-ins and smashed windows occurred throughout the night between Wednesday and Thursday in the Neve HaBaron neighborhood. The extent of the damage is extensive. No vehicles were stolen. The police are investigating.
• Third topic: The first part of the list of key issues I addressed in 2025, and the status of their resolution. The number of issues I handled on my own in a single year attests to a significant investment of time and effort. This is my work, dedicated to the rule of law and the residents. And you know that.

And so that you can follow along, I am publishing half of them in this newsletter and the other half in next week’s newsletter.

First topic: Updates from the council meeting held this week.

Last Tuesday, the first meeting of 2026 was held. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Mayor Tzila Reshef (the mayor was away on a private trip). The meeting was fairly brief and included:

An announcement by the Deputy Chair regarding the reason for withdrawing from the joint employment zone. This follows my posts on the subject, which have become the talk of the town in Zichron Yaakov. Because it really makes no sense to withdraw from a plan that has taken 15 years of work, was funded with millions by the Israel Land Authority (ILA), and is about to get underway.

Tzila repeated the explanation given by the council head—that the Israel Land Authority (ILA) is delaying the joint employment zone to pressure Zichron Yaakov into starting to develop its own zone. Therefore, Zichron Yaakov is withdrawing from the joint employment zone so as not to delay the development.

During the meeting, I asked if there were any facts to support this story about pressure from the Israel Land Authority. Tzila replied that there were, as these things were said during meetings with the Israel Land Authority and there is documentation to back them up.

I immediately asked to see the minutes of the meetings with Rami, as these are documents I am entitled to review as a council member.

Then the story changed—Zila replied that there is no written record of the meetings. There isn’t.

To the best of my knowledge and from what I have checked—at Israel Land Authority meetings, a formal minutes record is always taken and subsequently distributed to the participants. This is a public authority that manages billions; there’s no such thing as people saying things in a meeting without there being minutes. So how is it that suddenly there’s no written basis for the claim? And how did the Israel Land Authority itself tell the radio reporter that it didn’t know about the plan?

Dear residents—keep your eyes on the employment zone. We must not withdraw from it, especially when there is no real, logical reason that is transparent to the public.

Motion I submitted regarding the problem with the mailboxes.

For quite some time now, I have been hearing numerous complaints from residents throughout the community regarding the mail distribution facilities here. The problem concerns the incorrect mailboxes. These boxes are very small and/or are not emptied frequently enough. Therefore, residents who receive misdelivered mail and want to put it in the box so that the mail can be sent to the correct recipient—are unable to do so. They place the mail on top of the misdelivered mail box. The mail scatters everywhere. I walked around the mail distribution centers in the town, and almost everywhere you can see letters scattered on the floor, most of them wet from the rain.

It is clear to me that the responsibility lies with Israel Post, but residents’ repeated appeals to them have fallen on deaf ears. There is no response and Israel Post is ignoring the issue. Therefore, the council must step in and ensure ongoing and regular communication with Israel Post. Hence the motion I submitted, in which I requested that the council appoint a liaison to maintain regular contact with Israel Post.

A substantive discussion took place, during which it emerged that Deputy Council Head Meir Vanunu is already in regular contact with Israel Post regarding existing issues in Givat Eden. Therefore, he will also address the issue in Neve HaBaron and the entire community and provide updates. If you have encountered personal issues regarding mail delivery, or broader issues affecting other neighborhoods, please feel free to contact him directly.

I had one inquiry regarding the public building at 100 HaMeyasdim—see the update under the following topic.

Three proposals we were asked to approve. We voted unanimously in favor of them—because information was provided, questions were answered, and it is beneficial for the residents.

I will present the most important decision among them—to increase Budget Item 2135 for the purpose of renovating the archive building adjacent to the Bezeq parking lot. The proposed budget is intended to continue the licensing and planning process that began during the previous term, including interior design and the necessary adjustments to operate it as an artists’ center.

The plan is to establish an artists’ center in the white building, which will include a gallery, artist studios, and more. This is part of a plan that will also include the renovation of the First Aliyah Museum, the restoration of the settlers’ hut in the area behind the museum, and the establishment of the arts center. The estimated cost of the renovation is approximately 15 million NIS. Clearly, Zichron Ya’acov cannot finance this, so we hope that donations or funding from government ministries will be secured.

It should be noted here that in the past, the Council’s auditor issued a scathing report on the construction of the building, which began during Abutbul’s previous term. At this week’s meeting, I asked for the total amount of funds invested to date in the archive building project and was promised that I would receive this information. I will update you here.

Second issue: A wave of car break-ins and smashed windows occurred throughout the night between Wednesday and Thursday in the Neve HaBaron neighborhood.

Many residents of the Neve HaBaron neighborhood woke up on Thursday morning to find their car windows smashed. Gradually, it became clear from the group chat messages the extensive damage to the cars left behind by two individuals (who appear to be teenagers in the video but are difficult to identify because they were wearing hoodies).

The pair’s rampage continued throughout the night and spanned many streets—HaKovshim, HaSukkah, HaShomer, Wingate, and HaNotarim. No vehicles were stolen, leading residents to suspect that this was an act of vandalism. The police appointed a special investigator who received the footage submitted by residents who have security cameras. The council’s security officer promised to increase patrols in the neighborhood.

In Newsletter 66, I reported here on the council meeting that addressed the introduction of municipal policing in Zichron Yaakov at the beginning of March. I reported on the council head’s remarks that there has been an escalation in crime within Zichron Yaakov. As he put it, society has become more violent, and we are seeing phenomena in Zichron Yaakov today that did not exist a few years ago.

The increased security fee that we have all been paying since January of this year—the rate rising from 1.4 NIS per square meter to 2.97 NIS per square meter—is intended to fund the patrol unit and the municipal police force, which will begin operations on March 1. The police are covering the salaries of the six officers and one officer who will be in the unit. However, all other expenses will come from the security levy. The mayor has promised that the levy funds will be kept in a closed account and used solely for municipal policing purposes.

Third topic: The first part of the list of key issues I have addressed to date, and their current status.

I have reported on all these various activities in the regular newsletters. As you will see, many of them are not yet complete, which requires me to follow up and send additional inquiries. And a great deal of patience, which I have in abundance.

1. Preserving 100 HaMeisadim (the old Ya’avetz School) as a public building for the benefit of the community and stopping the plan to demolish it. The previous council worked to preserve the building and put it to use for the public good. Council Head Abutbul stated at the beginning of his term that the building was slated for demolition. Demolishing the building would have led to the construction of a dense residential neighborhood in the heart of the town. Thanks in part to our party bringing the issue to the public agenda, the fight succeeded—100 HaMeyasdim continues to operate as a public building. And recently we were informed that a center for youth activities for grades 7–9 will be established there. Wonderful! All that remains is to make the building accessible with an elevator. There is a plan for this and funding from the previous term—all that remains is to implement it so that people with disabilities can also enjoy this community center.

At the plenary session last Tuesday, I received a response to the inquiry I submitted regarding this matter. The inquiry is attached. In response to the first question regarding the elevator, we were informed that an elevator will be installed within the coming year.

In response to the second question—what other public activities will take place in the building—we were told that the youth center for ages 21–30 will operate from there.

I commend the Council for continuing to operate 100 HaMeisadim as a building for the benefit of the public.

2. At present, the plan to build an event hall on the plot of land adjacent to the Great Synagogue across from Gan Tiul has been halted. My investigation at the time revealed that this historic plot of land is also part of the synagogue complex, which is designated as a national heritage site. I contacted the Council for the Preservation of Sites, which, to my delight, understands the need to preserve the community’s unique history.

I managed to halt the plan, and the council head was required to go through the council’s Heritage Preservation Committee. The council head is not giving up, and in practice, to move the plan forward, he must hire architectural services and spend public funds. Regarding the plan to build an event hall submitted to the council’s Heritage Preservation Committee. The council’s preservation advisor strongly opposed the plan in a formal document, yet the council’s Preservation Committee decided to proceed with the planning. The Haifa District Committee has also strongly opposed this plan in the past, and all the more so, the Council for the Preservation of Historic Sites also opposes it and seeks to preserve the historic site as an open public space, adding benches and a garden for the benefit of the public. As for the synagogue’s worshippers who want a hall—which would be profitable for them—they are being offered the addition of a kitchenette and restrooms in the area behind the synagogue. This is the right approach that respects history. An event hall must not be built on this historic public space. My fight continues!

There is another matter concerning the Great Synagogue that I have been handling since March 2025—countless appeals have yet to yield a result. This is a serious issue that I will not let go of. I will report back in due course.

3. The paving project in the Villas neighborhood of Horesh, which began in August 2025 to pave and resurface the roads on three streets (Shazif, Shikma, and Tirosh), suddenly turned into a project to add rainwater drainage pipes, massive drainage chambers, and drainage ditches. The effort to upgrade the drainage system is commendable, but we did not actually approve it or the required budget for it at the council meeting, and it is unclear where the budgetary authorization to carry it out came from. When things aren’t handled in an organized and managed way, the ongoing project causes immense suffering for residents, including physical harm (a woman fell there, required hospitalization, and will soon file a lawsuit against the council—and rightly so).

Countless meetings between residents and the council have been fruitless. My requests for information were answered only after three months and only partially. Two streets were finally completed two weeks ago. We are now waiting for the completion of HaShazif Street. Infrastructure projects must not be managed this way; public funds must not be managed this way.

4. Monitoring of capital expenditures and the current budget. In countless instances, I have written to request answers and documents. The vast majority went unanswered due to the boycott against me. My countless appeals to the Ministry of the Interior to act to lift the illegal boycott, which severely hinders my work as a council member—and above all, undermines transparency for residents—have also been to no avail.

5. I worked until a building permit was issued for the new café in Gan Tiul—“Nuri’s Kiosk.” The land on which the building stands was also approved for use as a public structure, and the zoning was changed from open public space to public building. Here, too, they created countless obstacles for me and withheld information. Why? After all, it’s in the residents’ best interest to have a building permit and a business license.

6. Monitoring the Zichrona neighborhood plan. My monitoring is hindered by the boycott imposed on me by the head of the local council (and this is likely the purpose of the boycott—to prevent me from verifying facts). For example, I did not receive the summary of his meeting with the Minister of Housing regarding Zichrona (he claimed there were no minutes), and he refused to provide me with the complaint filed by several Zichrona neighborhood developers against the council (to the best of my knowledge, a hearing took place and there are judicial decisions). All of these are documented requests from me that have not received a response, not even from the council’s legal advisor.

7. Assistance to residents of Park HaYayin regarding the requirements of the Regional Committee. My motion led to many residents attending the meeting, where the council head explained to them what was required of them.

8. Ongoing monitoring of tenders—including personnel tenders published by the council. I will report on this in due course.