Beer Sheva mayor: Stop leftist draft dodger event

Beer Sheva Mayor Ruvik Danilovich wrote a letter of appeal, asking to cancel a leftist organization event about avoiding military service.

The event is scheduled for this coming Thursday and is organized by the Negev Coexistence Forum together with with Yesh Gvul. The event is set to take place in a public shelter that the city has granted access to and will feature two draft dodgers and the screening of a film called “The Deckhands” by Uri Barbash.

Haaretz reported that Danilovich has appealed to the Negev Coexistence Forum and asked them to cancel the event, saying that the city cannot support an event that will be provocative to its residents.

In his letter, Danilovlich explained that this isn't the first time this organization has asked to host an event in a publicly funded facility which he believes is provocative and offensive to many sectors and residents of the city.

“It’s an event I don’t believe should be happening,” Mayor Danilovich said, “and certainly not at the public's expense.”

He continued by saying,“It isn’t clear to me how this event deepens the connection and coexistence between our two nations. It’s not clear to me how this event would help the residents of this city cope with the current conflict and how it will help bring equality between Arabs and Jews."

He also added that the group hasn’t yet organized an event which expresses the social and security issues that the people of Beer Sheva have suffered through. The mayor stated that the organization also hasn’t facilitated a conference or symposium that presents the suffering of people in the low income neighborhoods of the city or elderly people and children who have survived rocket attacks through three military operations.