Nir Barkat, left, the mayor of Jerusalem, has breathed new life into the city in his first year in office. In an exclusive interview with The CJN, the mayor reveals the biggest challenges still facing the city and his vision for the future, and he talks about his lifelong love affair with the eternal capital.
JERUSALEM — When Nir Barkat became the ninth mayor of Jerusalem on Nov. 11, 2008, he inherited quite a few problems.
The municipal council was made up of various factions with often opposing interests, and the city had a tenuous relationship with the new U.S. administration. As well, there was an infrastructural mess in the city centre caused by a poorly planned and mismanaged light-rail train project.
Jerusalem has more poor residents than any other city in Israel, and tension exists between Orthodox and secular residents and among both east and west Jerusalemites. Other problems include illegal construction in Jerusalem and friction in the Old City.
“Name a conflict, we have it. Big time,” says Barkat, 50, in an exclusive interview at his office in city hall.
“But that’s why I am here, because I believe we can change this… I sure don’t do it for the money,” he adds with a smile.
Since he entered into public service six years ago, the self-made, high-tech millionaire has refused to take a salary from the city.
So why does he do it? The improvement of Jerusalem is its own reward, Barkat said. “The strengthening of Jerusalem doesn’t compare [in importance] to anything else in the Jewish world. A strong Jerusalem is in the best interests of every Jew in the world. It is above everything else.”
This is part of the message Barkat will deliver to the Toronto Jewish community on Nov. 8, at the Jerusalem Foundation of Canada’s Builders of Jerusalem gala at the Four Seasons Hotel.
The event will honour Canadians who, like Barkat, have shown exceptional dedication to nurturing the growth of Jerusalem.
“The concept of bonei Yerushalayim, building Jerusalem, isn’t new. Going back 2,000 years, Jews from the Diaspora have supported the development of Jerusalem from afar,” said Steve Solomon, director of the Canada Desk at the Jerusalem Foundation’s headquarters in Israel.
The Jerusalem Foundation of Canada hopes the event will raise support for its 20-plus city-centre programs. “As the city centre goes, so goes the city,” Solomon said. “We want to revitalize Jerusalem’s city centre.”
Barkat said he understands how important public-private partnership is for the city, and he has built philanthropic joint ventures into the city budget for next year.
“Joining these forces together into one big plan is very effective, adds value to both sources of capital and enables us to do things that neither of us could do alone,” he said.
His attempt to maximize both municipal and philanthropic resources is one of many examples of how he brings a business approach to the political realm.
“Proposing business tools and business thinking to managing the city works,” said Barkat, who made his fortune developing anti-virus software as founder of BRM in 1988, and later as an investor in several software and communication technology startups, including BackWeb and Check Point.
It was then that Barkat embarked on his philanthropic career. In 2001, he founded the social investment company Israel Venture Network, and in 2004 he founded StartUp Jerusalem, a non-profit that encourages the creation of jobs in Jerusalem through economic growth and marketing guidance.
But it was his slow-growing non-profit, Snunit – the largest Hebrew portal for web-based learning, educational information and activities – which he founded in 1994 along with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, that eventually awakened Barkat’s interest in politics.
“Through [Snunit], I got engaged in education and exposed to the public sector,” he said. “Once I realized how much the city was in distress, I decided to dedicate myself fully to the public sector in Jerusalem.”
That was six years ago. Barkat’s first political move was the founding of the party Yerushalayim Tatzliah (Jerusalem Will Succeed) in 2003. He ran for mayor and gained 43 per cent of the vote, but ended up losing to Uri Lupoliansky. Barkat became head of the opposition on city council, a position he held until he won the election in November 2008 with 52 per cent of the vote.
The first and biggest challenge he faced when he took office was getting council members to think more professionally than politically, Barkat said.
Eventually, he managed to get the council on track, formed a coalition of 30 out of 31 members and began to bring private-sector approaches to the political process.
“Bringing business elements into play is dramatically affecting the effectiveness of the system, its focus, and its approach. We have changed the way the city is managed,” he said.
He cleaned up the light-rail train mess, and the first track will be up and running by the end of 2010, Barkat said. Now, he aims to attract more business investment to the city, boost tourism and stop the migration of young adults from Jerusalem.
The most urgent of the three goals is attracting business to the city and giving it the lasting economic development it needs, he said. “When Jerusalem’s economy will improve, it will create jobs, take the city out of its poverty, and it will become more attractive both to tourists and to the young migrant population.”
Barkat is working with the government to create tax incentives, eliminate bottlenecks and otherwise encourage the development of Jerusalem’s private sector.
Second on his list is tourism. “My vision is to dramatically increase and improve the quality of experience for tourists in the city,” said Barkat, who aims to bring 10 million tourists a year to Jerusalem by 2020 (up from two million this year).
Last, but not least, Barkat is tackling the problem of young adults who come to study at the city’s top post-secondary academic institutions and then leave after graduation, rather than staying in Jerusalem to build their lives there. With that in mind, he founded the non-profit organization New Spirit, which aims to deepen the connection Jerusalem students have with the city via a series of volunteer programs, cultural events and the formation of student communities.
Of course, Barkat and his plans have at times met with resistance. For instance, his attempt to boost internal tourism by opening a parking lot near Jaffa Gate on Shabbat was met with rioting by haredim, who accused Barkat of attempting to “secularize” Jerusalem.
He also encountered some resistance from the secular residents of Jerusalem neighbourhood Kiryat Yovel, who complained about the “haredization” of their environs after Barkat allowed haredi groups to open a synagogue in an abandoned building there.
Similarly, when Barkat ordered the demolition of illegal houses in Silwan, a primarily Arab neighbourhood adjacent the Old City – and, on the other hand, permitted the construction of Jewish-owned apartments in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem – he was accused of holding anti-Arab views, even though about one-third of the demolition orders he issued applied to locations in west Jerusalem.
“The challenge is managing conflict, mediating things that can be mediated, and working on a common denominator as much as you can, while knowing that not everyone is necessarily going to like every decision 100 per cent,” Barkat said.
“The political system in Jerusalem, for many years has been guided by zero-sum game thinking – that if I gain, somebody’s got to lose. I am bringing a different kind of thinking that focuses on a win-win strategy, and people get it… There is much more acceptance and much more common ground than you might expect.”
In the end, tough decisions are made according to one guiding principle: what is best for the city, Barkat said.
This is the principle he applies in response to pressure over dividing Jerusalem. “In high-tech, we had a saying: ‘For every complex problem, there is one simple, wrong answer,’” he said. “Dividing Jerusalem is one such answer to one such complex problem.”
Barkat said the word “Yerushalayim” comes from the Hebrew word shalem, which means “whole.”
“Both ideologically and practically, Jerusalem will never be divided,” he said.
There is no split city in the world that has ever worked, he said. “When you split a city, you focus on the differences. And the focus of Jerusalem has to be on the common denominator.”
Further uniting east and west will entail increasing law enforcement and supervision in east Jerusalem, and investing in planning, development and infrastructure, Barkat said.
“Jerusalem will stay open and will enable freedom of religious expression, as it does today.”
Jerusalem was never as open for members of all religions to practise their faiths as it has been since becoming united under Israeli sovereignty. “That is the Jerusalem that people want in the world, and that is how we are going to keep it,” he said.
Barkat – a marathon runner who twice a week runs five miles from his home to his office at city hall just to “breathe in the city,” and who last week announced that, as part of a fall tour of North America to raise awareness of Jerusalem as the world’s top destination site for tourists and pilgrims, he’ll run in the New York City Marathon – said he has loved Jerusalem since he was a child growing up next to Bacca, in Mahane Allenby.
“As a young kid, I remember playing there. It was a wonderful neighbourhood,” he said.
The neighbourhood was also half a kilometre from the place where the 1967 war broke out. He was seven years old.
“I remember it very well,” said Barkat, who now lives with his wife, Beverly, and their three daughters in Beit Hakerem. “It was a huge experience for me.”
Barkat said his favourite place in Jerusalem is the City of David. “I go every month to see what’s new and look at the digs. It’s by far the most amazing place. You see it all, that the Bible really happened. It’s amazing.”
It is his deep love of and appreciation for the city that gives him the strength to continue pursuing his goals for Jerusalem. “In a recent poll, we saw that people feel there is a positive momentum in the city,” he said. “We have already made a big difference in the atmosphere.”
Although the road ahead is a long and bumpy one, Barkat said that with the help of the Jewish communities of the Diaspora, he’s confident about the future.
“Jews in the Diaspora should see themselves as shareholders of the city of Jerusalem,” he said. “If people think that way, we will improve and strengthen the city much faster. I spend 100 per cent of my time focusing on how to improve Jerusalem, and I would love to see the world partner with us here.”
The Jerusalem Foundation has adopted the classical term “builder” to pay tribute to several Canadian philanthropists who have made important contributions to building the city.
Among the Canadian “builders” to be honoured at the gala at the Four Seasons in Toronto are the Asper family; the Azrieli family; Leslie and Anna Dan; Henry and Julia Koschitzky, and Isadore and Rosalie Sharp.
Two other Canadian families will receive special honours for making lifetime investments in Jerusalem: the Desmarais and the Bloomfield families, who received the Teddy Kollek Award in 2007 and 2009, respectively.
“The Jerusalem Foundation is thrilled to have Mayor Barkat on side,” the foundation’s Steve Solomon said. “Mayor Barkat, like the founder of the Jerusalem Foundation, former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollel, is a very engaged partner.
“We share a certain vision and energy, a passion for getting things done, and for Jerusalem. He’s committed to the same concept of building.”
