BySHIRA SILKOFF

Beit Shemesh mayor Aliza Bloch fired six of her council members, all members of United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and the Likud Party, on Sunday.

Bloch, the first female mayor to serve the majority haredi (ultra-Orthodox) town, stated that she fired the six men on the grounds that they failed to pass several important decisions during council meetings, including in the education budget, which prevented money from going towards new study spaces that are needed in several areas of the city, all of them in haredi neighborhoods.
The city of Beit Shemesh has a population of around 125,000, the majority of whom are estimated to be ultra-Orthodox. According to a poll in Haaretz in 2013, at least 75% of the children entering the school system each year were entering into the haredi school system. 

The men, however, refuted her statement, and have claimed that Bloch withdrew from the agreements and coalition deals she had made with them two and a half years ago when she was first elected.

The two factions released a joint statement, saying that Bloch had chosen to "use a 'divide and rule' method, violate obligations to the public and behave in an unprofessional manner."

In her letter to the dismissed council members, the mayor explained her decision, saying that "from the day I took office as mayor of Beit Shemesh...I entrusted you with various powers. The purpose of depositing the powers was to strengthen and develop the city of Beit Shemesh in various areas.

"Recently, in a number of circumstances, you have chosen to act in a manner that is damaging to these targets, a damage that could harm the development of the city."

She continued, saying that the council members had harmed her trust, and that she had decided to formally dismiss them, meaning that within 48 hours of receiving her letter, the council members would no longer hold any of the powers that had been delegated to them.

Before her journey into politics, Bloch was an educator herself, and has stressed the importance of the education system many times and it has been a key part of her policy goals since she won the mayoral elections in 2018. Prior to that, she headed Branco Weiss High School in the city for 16 years and transformed it from a small junior high school to a 1,500-strong high school. She was awarded the National Education Award in 2011 and received her doctorate from Bar-Ilan University in 2016.

She reaffirmed her decision in a press release on Sunday, saying that she had made the choice "out of responsibility to the future of the city and its residents," and that she could no longer allow a "reality in which deputy mayors and councilors hurt thousands of students and deprive them."

"I can not allow further harm to the city by those who have authority but do not take responsibility," she said.The decision was met with anger from some, however, and according to a reporter from Radio Kol Chai, a haredi news station, her ultra-Orthodox media consultant Rafi Perlstein announced his resignation shortly after her dismissal of the six council members.
Alan Rosenbaum contributed to this report.