Secular families demand that the municipal swimming pool be opened for a mixed bathing of men and women. Municipality: "Examining Referral Aspects" Dozens of secular families from Kiryat Arba began protesting against the municipality over the hours of the municipal pool. The pool in Kiryat Arba has hours for women, hours for men, but there are no family hours for a mixed audience of men and women.
Shlomi Shukron, a resident of Kiryat Arba who was born and raised there, said that this is a struggle of several years: "For four years now, I have been trying to talk to the council to give us hours to come to the pool with the children every summer. "We need to receive a response as residents, not a religious war, heaven forbid, but only a request for ordinary rights." The issue of mixed swimming in Kiryat Arba is not new, but this time, unlike previous years, the residents claim that the protests on the issue are greater than in the past. According to them, in other communities in Judea and Samaria where there is also a majority of the religious public, there are mixed hours of swimming.
The problem becomes more difficult when single mothers are over six years of age. "This is a hard and strange feeling," said Yarat Zarfati, a single mother who has lived in Kiryat Arba since she was born. "My son is eight years old, so I can not go into the pool with him, he begs me to take him in. I got to the point where I asked his driver to watch him in the pool. This problem also makes it difficult for Tzvia Shua, who has been living in Kiryat Arba for 40 years and his 8-year-old mother: "We respect religious people in Kiryat Arba, we do not light barbecues on Shabbat, we do not listen to music on Shabbat, we rarely travel in places where there is a religious majority, We also do not ask to open the pool on Shabbat, but only a few hours of mixed swimming during the week. "
Municipality: "Examining aspects"
The secular families in Kiryat Arba announced that the struggle would continue until a solution to the problem was found and that if necessary, they would turn to the Supreme Court. Stas Grishkov, a member of the city council, said: "We do not intend to stop and if we have to get to Bagatz, we do not want to get there and think that it can be solved in a pleasant way."
The municipality of Kiryat Arba said in response: "Kiryat Arba - Hebron is a heterogeneous settlement and today marks its 50th anniversary, and our public is characterized by diversity and mutual respect between all shades. "In the last few weeks, we have received a request from a group of the public, about 30 percent of the population, who want to examine the possibility of operating the pool during family hours. source: Ynet Follow us Facebook Twitter Instagram
