Three years after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the new country club in Jerusalem’s Har Homa neighborhood must operate on Saturdays, the neighborhood’s community administration is now accused of avoiding activities there and even moving events outside the city. Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yossi Havilio is demanding that the municipality cut its funding, saying the administration is acting against the court decision and the spirit of the law.
Har Homa, in southern Jerusalem, was founded 25 years ago as a mixed neighborhood. Years ago the city began building the country club, including a swimming pool, and pledged during construction that the pool would operate all week, in line with Jerusalem’s long-standing arrangement that public pools open on Shabbat and holidays. The facility was built with municipal funding after a long public and legal battle over Shabbat operations, and in 2023 the Supreme Court ruled it must remain open on Saturdays despite opposition from religious residents.
The immediate trigger is a boys-only pool party for Har Homa teenagers scheduled for Thursday not at the local country club, but at the pool in Efrat in Gush Etzion. The community administration will fund the event and pay for round-trip transportation from Jerusalem. The same administration, headed by Shlomo Golbari, who is identified with the Har Hamor yeshiva, is also accused of avoiding events at the neighborhood facility because it is open on Shabbat. Staff at the country club said they have not received any request from the administration to hold residents’ events there.
In his letter to senior city officials, Havilio said the administration is boycotting the pool because it is open on Saturdays and is running activities with gender segregation and exclusion that do not meet legal requirements. He argued that taking teenagers to Efrat instead of the local pool needlessly raises costs, and said summer camps run with separation, without an equivalent option for those who do not want it, create legal problems. Havilio said Har Homa is a mixed neighborhood of national-religious, traditional and secular residents, and noted that after the court ruling, thousands of residents now hold memberships at the pool. The Jerusalem municipality said the city and community administrations run activities in and outside Jerusalem for residents, but that this event is not city-funded. Golbari declined to comment.
