What do you know about the mayor who wants to be prime minister?

Last week, Huldai (76) announced the establishment of the “Israelis” party and his candidacy for prime minister.

Since the announcement, he has received praise and a blessing of the road on the one hand, and on the other hand, criticism has been leveled at him calling for him to resign from his position as mayor and allow someone else to run the city while he fights with Bibi and Lapid.

Until the issue is resolved, we set out to take a peek at the successes and failures of the contestant, to recall his mouth emissions and also to hear what is being said about him.

Summary of previous chapters

Ron Huldai was born on August 26, 1944 in Kibbutz Hulda.

In 1963 he enlisted in the IDF and began the pilot course. He fought on Yom Kippur, commanded several squadrons and bases of sprouts and yards.

In 1989 he graduated with the rank of brigadier general, changed direction for education and for six years ran the Herzliya Gymnasium.

He was elected mayor of Tel Aviv in 1998, and has since served five terms – the longest term among all Tel Aviv mayors.

Great successes and glorious failures:

His shift recorded poor infrastructure in the Hatikva neighborhood and the elevator disaster in which he perished in floods in January a year ago, Autumn Harari and Dean Shoshani.

Hundreds of residents were evacuated in Givat Amal, Kfar Shalem, the Argazim neighborhood, the Ezra neighborhood and the Kfir neighborhood in favor of new projects. The rights of many of them were trampled on in the evacuation battles.

The big promises for the construction and renovation of the Dolphinarium complex and the Sites Square complex have not yet been realized due to legal disputes.

Above Huldai’s tenure is the accelerated construction of luxury towers, which invites wealthy residents from Israel and abroad to the city and pushes young people and non-established residents out of the city.

Huldai is about to leave the mayoralty in one of its most difficult economic moments. Many businesses are collapsing because of the corona crisis. Streets like Allenby and Ben Yehuda are commercially crushed. Dozens of stores in Jerusalem Boulevard were closed due to light rail work.

A number of projects led by Huldai during our tenure are considered a great success, including the renovation of Dizengoff Square, the promenade and the Habima complex.

Over the past decade, Tel Aviv has become a world city. There is hardly an international award that the city has not picked and it is branded in the world as one of the most attractive cities for tourists.

For five years now, Tel Aviv has been the city where the new immigrants most want to live.

Over the years, Huldai has become one of the darlings of the proud community. Thanks in no small part to the famous Pride Parades that attract tens of thousands from all over the world. Recently, a massive renovation of the proud community center in Gan Meir was approved.

Huldai made Tel Aviv the richest city in Israel. He has been running the city without deficits for years. Much of this success is attributed to the fact that it has a huge majority in the coalition and few opponents in the city council.

Mouth emissions: The parade of unnecessary sentences

A rat is not known as a cold-tempered, patient and attentive person. Throughout his tenure, several controversial and offensive remarks have been made about him:

As the director of the Herzliya Gymnasium, for example, Huldai once said of homosexuals that they were “disgusting as cockroaches,” but later retracted this statement and in time became the darling of the proud community.

He knew struggles and conflicts with Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball fans. They called his mother a “whore” and he replied, “My mother Hannah was a teacher and an educator. She was not a whore.”

In 2010, during a discussion in the municipality about parking tickets, he said: “No sticks and no tricks. Every young person who wants to live here has ten more. Being Tel Aviv is worth transferring ownership. We will harass every person who comes here to the limit. We will kill him. And we will send him to fetch Grandpa, Mom, Uncle and Aunt. “

In the same year he criticized the ultra-Orthodox, noting that they were ignorant and calling for civil rebellion against them: “There must be disillusionment and perhaps even rebellion among the silent civilian majority. .

In 2013, he told council member Sharon Malki: “You are cute.” He later apologized and told her: “An old man like me, I had no intention of hurting.” Another sexist mouthpiece was directed at his deputy, council member Meital Lehavi of Meretz, whom he once called “Maidale.”

Three years ago he caused a stir when he revealed in an interview that he had previously eaten dog meat. Following the review, Huldai later explained that he was staying at the home of a Vietnamese peasant family, who invited him to her home and served him the little she had, a situation that required the guest to eat politely.

What is being said about him

Israel Godovich, former city engineer: “No matter what Huldai promised, he will not keep it. That’s why I resigned from the municipality. Huldai did no good to the city. What was good just happened to him by mistake. Just as Huldai did not count the weak in the south of the city, so too “He will not count the weak in the State of Israel. He will work for the whole country.”

The actress and bride of the Israel Prize revealed Almagor: “Ron is a man of action who made Tel Aviv the capital of culture. He invests in a culture that was murdered and thrown away. I worked with him in his first term. He gave me the culture file and I got backing from him.

“As much as he has a short thread like that he also knows how to listen, he is curious, sharp-minded and honest like a ruler. He does not waste time and words, focused on doing. He constantly wants to know, to learn. As a leader I would like to give him the leading national name.”