Yerushalayim’s Mayor Moshe Lion and top police officials pledged another upgrade in security for Har Hazeisim in recent meetings with Menachem Lubinsky, co-chair of the International Committee for Har Hazeisim (ICHH). “Securing Har Hazeisim is not a matter of policy; it is deep in my conscience,” said the Mayor. He also pledged to continue the “cleanup” of Har Hazeisim with regular sanitation and maintenance crews, a development which was sorely missing in years past. The Mayor thanked the ICHH for its efforts and particularly noted its role in the pending construction of the Visitor Education Center. “You have no better friend and advocate than me,” said the Mayor.
Police officials pledged to further upgrade the new and improved security on Har Hazeisim with what they call “Phase II.” In a meeting with Brigadier General Doron Torgeman, who heads the Kedem police station responsible for all of East Yerushalayim and other police officials, the ICHH leader was informed that further upgrades in security are on the drawing board. One of the main features of the new security measures will be new additional lighting that will be added to the many new security towers that have already been installed. “We have the utmost gratitude to the ICHH for being such a strong supporter of our efforts. You are responsible for the complete turn-around of the situation on Har Hazeisim,” said Commander Torgeman. He particularly noted the large number of visitors” who now come at all hours of the day and night.” Police officials particularly singled out the near 10,000 chasidim of Gur who came for the yahrzeit of the saintly Bais Yisrael and the more than 100,000 that came for the yahrzeit of the saintly Ohr Hachaim.
The police also announced plans to institute a License Plate Recognition (LPR) program which would control the flow of traffic on Har Hazeisim and curtail “unwanted” visitors. Police also promised that a unit of the Border Police would continue to sweep the entire mountain at least once daily.
Yet another important meeting was with Suriel Krispel, who is no stranger to hard work. As a deputy Mayor in the city of Elad, he built many institutions and founded many social organizations. As the recently named new Director of the Council of Cemeteries, he will be responsible for Har Hazeisim amongst the other cemeteries in Jerusalem. In meeting with Menachem Lubinsky, he pledged to work together to continue to improve conditions at the cemetery and to encourage thousands to visit the 3,000 year-old cemetery with its 150,000 neshamos. Reb Suriel is particularly concerned at the continued bad state of affairs near the Kever of the saintly Bartenura. “We will finally clean-up this tzaddik’s place of burial,” Krispel pledged.
Another important meeting was with MK Yoav ben Zur, the chairman of the largest caucus in the history of the Israeli Knesset. 68 members of the Knesset from every faction were part of the Caucus on Har Hazeisim in the last Knesset prior to the string of elections which are still running their course. “I am convinced that when the next Knesset is finally sworn in, it will have an even larger caucus on Har Hazeisim,” Rabbi ben Zur predicted.
In summing up his visit, Mr. Lubinsky noted: “I used to look at Har Hazeisim as a tale of two mountains. On the left side, buses were lined up all along the mountain with tourists visiting some of the 13 churches that are located there. Tourists were busy buying souvenirs from Arab vendors and taking pictures on camels. On the right side of the mountain, there were no buses, just people nervously making their way to a Kever of a loved one or one of the hundreds of tsaddikim buried there. No buses, no vendors, no pictures; only nervous individuals, occasionally with an armed guard. That was in 2010!”
Lubinsky continued “Today, the buses bringing the Christian tourists are no longer afraid to park on the “Jewish” side. People drive up to Har Hazeisim in their own vehicles. Taxis routinely bring mispallelim as does the regular Egged bus service. The cameras are working. When there was an incident in early February when two cars were stoned, police caught the youngsters within two hours, a police drone followed them to their homes. Parents were arrested. Zero tolerance! No grave was desecrated since October 2016.”
