JERUSALEM–My wife Varda has not been this happy since she violated Obama-Clinton prohibitions by hanging new curtains in the living room of our French Hill home.
Her smile, along with a loud “Aha,” came with the news that Uri Lupolianski had been arrested for involvement in the Holyland scandal. According to the charges, he had received three million shekels (about US$800,000) as contributions to Yad Sarah, his election campaign, and a religious academy headed by his son.
Yad Sarah is an award-winning institution created and headed by Lupolianski that provides services to the aged, ill and handicapped Israelis, with facilities in both Jewish and Arab communities. Its large headquarters is the reason for Varda’s delight at Lupolianski’s arrest. It was built on the field opposite the small home that Varda’s parents purchased in the 1950s with reparations from Germany. Varda and her sister Gabi, and later Gabi’s children and ours picked wildflowers and chased butterflies in that field. The grandparents grew old in a quiet home with a small garden, separated by the field from a busy street.
The headquarters not only turned the field into six stories of glass and stone, but blocked the sun and spoiled the ambiance of a quiet neighborhood. Varda’s parents protested the initial plans for the building, and received a bouquet of flowers in exchange. Varda and Gabi joined the neighbors to protest a plan to take more land and expand the structure. They learned from a municipal official that plans for expansion were approved “with the speed of the Concorde.” Home owners later received bills from the municipality equivalent to several thousand dollars for replacing the pavement of their streets with more fashionable “Holland stones,” seemingly at the initiative of Yad Sarah. Another protest brought nothing more than the addition of interest to the initial demands.
Lupolianski was a member of the city council, then deputy mayor and head of the local planning commission before becoming mayor when Ehud Olmert resigned to take a position as minister in the national government, on his way to become prime minister several years later.
Lupolianski was the first ultra-Orthodox mayor of Jerusalem. After serving as Olmert’s replacement, he won a full term when the ultra-Orthodox turned out at rates in excess of 80 percent, while fewer than 30 percent of secular Jerusalemites voted in the municipal election. His trademark angelic smile served him in politics and as head of Yad Sarah, and was not altered when interviewed during a pause in his questioning by police.
Lupolianski was deputy mayor and head of the planning commission when Varda and her neighbors sought to block the expansion of the Yad Sarah building. When the commission considered his plans, Lupolianski absented himself from the meetings. However, the neighborhood committee could not find a Jerusalem lawyer specializing in planning issues who was willing to represent them. Lupolianski’s concern for the project was known to all, as was his role in all other projects coming before the commission.
According to a headline in Ha’aretz: “Lupolianski supporters say: ‘He devoted his life to help people.’ Municipal official report “To contractors it was hinted that a contribution to Yad Sarah would help.'”
Lupolianski is charged with receiving bribes, conspiracy to commit a crime, fraud, violatioin of trust, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Another headline quotes Lupolianski saying, “I was only the deputy.”
Ehud Olmert was mayor when the alleged events occurred.
Ha’aretz cartoon shows two pensive individuals waiting for a plane ride home. One is Ehud Olmert. The other is the paper’s journalist who is holding documents stolen from the IDF.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University