MK Osnat Mark: “Do you think she really cares about young couples? It’s all politics “(Photo: Israel Fry, Democrat TV)
“I have no money to eat while the couples are vacationing in the Seychelles and Dubai.” This is how the owner of the Simchat Hall, Hagai Cohen, reacted angrily today at a meeting of the Knesset’s Economics Committee, when the committee approved at the last minute of the Knesset’s fall on the eve of the second and third readings the bill to repay an advance due to the cancellation of a private event. Committee Chairman Yaakov Margi and MK Moshe Gafni.
Meanwhile, tonight was documented MK Osnat Mark shouting at Kfir Suissa, chief of staff of the coalition and one of those responsible for garnering votes in the plenum, because she does not intend to vote for the law, because the bill’s initiator is MK Hila Shai and Zan White Brush: Give Blue and White another win? It’s all politics, why do you think she really cares about young couples? Leave it, I’m not interested. “After the tweet of journalist Israel Fry who revealed the video, Shai and Zane shared the tweet and wrote:” Osnat Mark – and every word is unnecessary. ”
Hila Shai and Zan from a white brush and Osnat Mark from the Likud
(Photo: Knesset Spokeswoman)
At the beginning of the meeting on the approval of the law, Chairman Margie emphasized that the committee is aware of the plight of the hall owners, but the young couples should not be the state’s credit card company. During the hearing, a storm arose when Cohen, one of the hall owners, said the couples canceled And if he hadn’t had three children in a long time he would have cut the veins. Committee members said, “We definitely understand you.”
According to the approved proposal, couples who paid for an event before the corona restrictions began and were canceled as a result – will get almost all of their money back, if they have not been able to reach agreements with the hall owners. The proposal will take effect on January 1, 2021 and will apply to events scheduled for March 12, 2020 onwards, and the contracts for them were signed before the Corona period. In the first stage, the parties will have five months to negotiate in order to reach an agreement on a different date for the event.
If the parties agree on another date and the second event is canceled, or if the event hall operator decides not to negotiate or conducted it in bad faith – then the couples will be entitled to a refund of the advance paid within a month from the planned event or the couple writing to the hall owner. In such a case, the owner of the hall will be able to deduct from the advance only the amount of the tasting event expenses, provided that it does not exceed NIS 2,000.
However, if the parties have not agreed to hold an event at another time, or the couples have decided not to negotiate an additional date for the event – the owners of the halls may also charge a cancellation fee. In such a case, the owners of the halls will be required to return the advance amount within a month from the written request, but as stated, they can also reduce the cost of the tasting event, up to NIS 2,000, and cancellation fees not exceeding 5% of the event or NIS 3,000.
It was also determined today that if the owners of the halls do not return the money as stipulated by law, the young couples will be able to file a lawsuit in court, which can determine compensation without proof of damage of up to 10,000 shekels. In determining the compensation, the court may consider, inter alia, the seriousness of the violation of the law, its financial scope and its circumstances.
The initiator of the proposal, MK Shai Wazan, said that according to the data she has in more than 90% of the canceled weddings, no agreement was reached between the couples and the hall owners. She added that “the compensation for the hall owners was not enough, but it could not be on the backs of the couples The young people. “MK Yevgeny Soba claimed that the amount in dispute between the couples and the owners of the halls is only NIS 12 million, and the state can find that money and help both parties.
Cohen, who owns a ballroom, said he opened the place in 2020 and he has not worked for 10 months and has not yet received a single shekel from the state. “I’m in the worst situation I’ve been in, I have no money to buy food at the grocery store, and the couples who canceled events are celebrating in the Seychelles and Dubai. I can not go there because I have no money. I have nothing to lose, if I did not have three children long ago . With all the regret of his remarks, Chairman Margie responded that “the fact that the state must compensate the hall owners does not yet give them the right to hold money from someone who has not received compensation.”
The attorney general of the Association of Hall and Event Garden Owners, Ron Shapira, responded to MK Wazan’s remarks: “The law is unconstitutional, I ask that you consider it. 9% You must know this before a decision is made. “
Yaron Malinsky, a representative of the Association of Halls and Event Gardens, told of his plight when couples could rent villas and get married while receiving a phone call from the police, at the beginning of the closure, and was told that opening the hall was a criminal offense. “We are in favor of couples – but events without them are not worth anything. There are owners of bankruptcy halls, whose property owners evict them, send lawyers. We ask for only one thing – understand and be with us, we are the victim just like the couples, we do our best but we are alone We are facing the banks and the property owners and we do not currently have the money to pay. “
On the other hand, the head of the struggle of the couples’ struggle, Noga Retz, said that during the discussion she received a message from a college, according to which Malinsky holds more than NIS 45,000 for her wedding, which was canceled in March. “We are not against the hall owners or against the state, but we are not the credit company of the hall owners or the state. We have become the most profitable bank that gives a loan of over NIS 20 million without interest. We talked so much about compromises and we are willing to compromise, but never compromise. We had someone to talk to. “
After the proposal was approved, Malinsky warned many of the hall owners how to return money and they would not be able to comply with the law. In response, Margie said that he would require the Ministry of Finance to provide additional assistance to the hall owners. MK Shai Wazan also noted that she had requested a quick discussion on the matter in the Finance Committee, which will be one of the only committees in the Knesset to continue convening after the election.
“The compensation to the owners of the halls was indeed not enough, but it cannot be on the backs of the young couples”
(Photo: shutterstock)
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the Consumer Protection Authority and presented to the committee, shows that most of the couples who planned to get married in 2020 have not yet married, and almost all of them also suffered economic damage. The survey, which is intended to examine the wedding market and the situation of those getting married in the corona year, also shows that most couples have so far chosen not to initiate legal proceedings against the hall owner. 61% of the couples who participated in the survey reported that they had not yet gotten married, and half of them had not even set a new date for the event. The survey was distributed during November among 300 couples who had planned to get married in the past year. The average age of the survey participants was 28.
The results of the survey show that out of the 300 couples who participated in the survey, only one couple got married on the original date, the rest reported that their marriage was canceled or postponed. 39% of couples even reported that their event was postponed at least twice. 80% of the couples who postponed the wedding set a new date in the original hall, as did 14% of the couples who had already married in a modest home ceremony, but indicated that they were interested in another event later on. Most of the participants were supposed to get married in the central region (46%) and in the Sharon region (33%).
Despite the economic damage suffered by the couples, the results of the survey show that 84% of all couples, both married and not, did not initiate legal proceedings against the owner of the hall – at least until the time they completed the survey. 14% did initiate proceedings against the owners of the hall, and the rest did not respond.