Ra'anana Mayor on the explosion with Israel Katz: "The minister insisted, so I left"

At the end of December 2025, Ra'anana Mayor Chaim Broyda, accompanied by senior municipality officials, arrived at the office of Minister of Construction Israel Katz. On the agenda was the signing of the city's first 'roof agreement' — a significant historical event that includes over a billion shekels for infrastructure and the construction of 6,700 new apartments after four years of work. Everything was ready for the festive ceremony, the handshakes, the signatures, and the souvenir photos.

But then Broyda discovered that Katz had invited two Likud members from Ra'anana to the event. The mayor demanded that the two not participate, the minister refused, and the festive ceremony turned into a political explosion. Broyda took his people and left. Katz responded with an unusually harsh statement, accusing the mayor of a boycott for political motives and claiming he was trying to prevent Likud members from participating in the event.

One can argue with the strongman of Ra'anana about naivety — signing ceremonies for roof agreements are long since not just professional events. They are a convenient political stage, with lots of money, lots of promises, and lots of cameras. Mayors and ministers stand side by side and announce thousands of apartments and billions for infrastructure, and everyone goes home with a good picture for the voters. But for Broyda, what can you do, it didn't fit.

"I worked on this roof agreement for four years," Broyda recalls in a special interview with 'Maariv Business'. "I was with Minister Goldknopf when he was in the Ministry of Construction. I brought him the pictures of the fallen from Ra'anana after October 7 and asked him if their blood is different from the blood of others. In the Ministry of Construction, they decided to stick to the fact that at a price of 20,000 shekels per meter for an apartment, a roof agreement is not deserved, and they did not agree to include us.

"You have to understand that in Ra'anana there are over 6,000 residents who need welfare services. But they refused, so I filed a petition to the Supreme Court. A moment before the decision, the Israel Land Authority (ILA) gathered and decided that Ra'anana also deserves a roof agreement. I signed the main points with Yanki, and then they asked me to come to the Ministry of Construction. I came with the CEO, the treasurer, my chief of staff — and I saw that two Ra'anana residents, Likud central committee members, were in the room where we were supposed to sign. And I find myself in a primary campaign."

If only the minister was there, would you have signed? "Certainly! But these are two very problematic people. So I said I was not willing to enter and asked them to be removed. The minister insisted, so I left. By the way, last week we finally signed the agreement. It's behind us."

The Kiddush of the secular

This confrontation tells quite a bit about the man who has been managing Ra'anana for eight years. He is a former journalist who is not really impressed by titles, ministers, or party centers. Anyone who knows him knows that stubbornness is an inseparable part of him. Some will call it independence, others will say it is ego and an inability to bend.

There are local authority heads in Israel who are completely identified with a specific party. There are the Likudniks, like Chaim Bibas or Benny Biton from Dimona; Yair Lapid supporters, like Amir Kochavi from Hod HaSharon; David Azulay (Metula) joined Yisrael Beiteinu and Yossi Dagan (Samaria) is an enthusiastic supporter of Religious Zionism. Clear party affiliation can be helpful if you are on the side that is in power, and can dry you out if the government sees you as an enemy, see Avichai Stern in Kiryat Shmona.

"I am completely apolitical," Broyda declares. "I have my own opinions, and since Ra'anana is a homogeneous city, I am prevented from expressing my opinion. And yes, I was at some of the demonstrations against the judicial reform."

So you are political. "I am a proud Israeli who enters places where it is possible to improve. I say things and do not hide, and I expect there to be leadership here with substantive considerations."

It is not hard to guess where you are located on the political map. "I was at demonstrations twice: on the day it was decided to dismiss Yoav Gallant, and on the day the judicial reform was decided."

So why is what is allowed for you forbidden for Minister of Construction Katz? "In my opinion, one must separate and look at the whole picture. When I went out to the street, I did not take a political act, but to express my feelings."

And the government wasn't angry with you? Avichai Stern was marked and they are making his life miserable. "I have a lot of supporters from Likud. Besides, former Knesset Speaker Dov Shilansky (of blessed memory) is my uncle. I am completely substantive. The law of a penny is the law of a hundred. I care for the Haredim and the religious just as I care for the secular. I arrange night swimming for the Haredim, even at the expense of the secular, because they also deserve it."

In Chabad, they don't agree with you. They claim you have been digging into their 120 students for several years. "If the Chabad rabbi decides to open a school in a private house in a private neighborhood, and declares that it is a Chabad school, that is a problem. But I brought it about that the school would be recognized by the Ministry of Education."

If it is against the law, why did you allow the school? "I told them to move to the industrial zone and manage things there privately. I arranged for them to be given a Ministry of Education symbol. They insisted on entering another place inside a residential neighborhood, and there is a struggle of neighbors against them."

Do you have Haredim and religious people in the coalition? "I have everything, from everything and from everywhere."

And they don't have a problem with the fact that your son is an openly gay man? "My son is an amazing child. This is another matter of principle for me: there are four Haredi families who encountered the issue of their children's sexual identity, and I met with two of them. At the last Pride event, they were also there. By the way, I was the first to hold the Pride parade in the city, even though they broke my car windows and threatened me.

"In Ra'anana, there is a small group of Haredim, but the majority are National Religious and families who immigrated from France and keep traditions. For the last eight and a half years, I have allowed everyone to keep their way of life, because the Kiddush of the secular is to drink their Friday or Saturday coffee. I also introduced public transport on Saturdays to the city two and a half years ago. The Yad LeBanim house operates on Saturday, there are children's plays and concerts there, restaurants are open on Saturday. I am not one who keeps his opinions to himself. Each side has its freedom. On the other hand, the street, our main avenue, is closed on Saturday. But in the neighborhoods, you have to let people live. The park is also open. There is one kosher restaurant there that is closed on Saturday and one that is open."

"The prices are not logical"

Broyda, 69, married to Doris and father of three, was born and raised in Ra'anana, the son of Holocaust survivors. He did his military service in the Paratroopers Brigade, as a fighter and company commander, and in the First Lebanon War, he was wounded by an explosive device in the central sector. After rehabilitation, he returned to reserve service and advanced to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Home Front Command. At the same time, he built a long journalistic career at 'Yedioth Ahronoth'. He started as a field reporter covering the Sharon area and Judea and Samaria, mainly in the fields of crime and security, and in 1996 was appointed head of the newspaper's correspondents. Later, he also served as chairman of the journalists' committee, was one of the founders of the 'Radius' radio station, and a member of the management of the Israel Journalists Association.

He later replaced journalism with local politics, in the city where he was born. For nearly 20 years he served as a member of the city council, and for two terms he headed the opposition. In 2018, he was elected mayor and became the first mayor in the history of Ra'anana who was born and raised in it. Alongside the role, he is also active in the Center for Local Government and serves as chairman of the committee for roof agreements and the Israel Land Authority.

"For years, an injustice was done to Ra'anana. In 2019, the price of a meter for an apartment was 20,000 shekels, and because of that, we didn't deserve anything. Around us, cities with a socio-economic situation like mine did receive. I have three children, and none of them have a chance to live in Ra'anana in their own home. In recent years, the city has aged, and there was no supply of three-room apartments or less. Today we are unable to keep up with the amounts of schools we are opening. In the last eight years, I built 44 new kindergartens and eight schools, and in the last two months, almost 400 new immigrants have been added to the city."

Ra'anana was once a moshava. They will say that you are changing its character completely. "I wish I could keep Ra'anana as it was. It is 104 years old, and I fought against the growth, but I cannot fight the ILA and the state. They are the ones who mark the number of housing units that will be in the city. The committees wanted there to be huge towers here, and I stopped it. I decided to take the city center, old houses 70 years old, to destroy the old and build in urban renewal. In my way, we approve eight floors in three-story buildings that undergo 'pinui-binui' (evacuation-construction). Each of them will have an underground parking lot, reinforcement against earthquakes, and a protected room (MAMAD). I opposed TAMA 38/1, because it is external cosmetics. We have been in this process for seven years already. A total of 22,000 housing units within 20 years. We received almost two billion shekels from the ILA for infrastructure, and the rest we will receive from the contractors."

It is not certain that your residents like it. "If you told me that in Tel Aviv, Ramat HaSharon, Kfar Saba, Hod HaSharon the picture is different, I would speak differently. But it is not like that. Whoever is in the ivory tower and is good for him, who sits in his new house and next to him they are raising a building, then it is clear that it bothers him. The country is small and the apartment prices in Ra'anana are not logical, and I hope that the amount of units we build will lower the prices.

"You know, I was in Cyprus, and I was horrified to see Israeli children, five and six years old, who speak Greek and will not return to Israel. It is about the best of the youth who left. I also met guys from Ra'anana there. There is a departure of strong residents who can work outside and it hurts me."

Are you one of the mayors who decided to raise the municipal tax (arnona) beyond the automatic pilot? "No. I raised the arnona at the beginning of the term because I had no choice. In the Corona, we entered a deficit, and in the last war, an additional deficit of 13 million shekels. The arnona will rise only by 3%. But I can understand the mayors who decided to raise it. When you drive a newer car, you pay more. A 3% increase for us is 16 shekels a month, and the residents of Ra'anana can handle it."

"They will try to sabotage the elections"

In his perception, with such or another addition of payment, one can somehow manage, but with what is happening in the country, not at all. "I am very pained by what is happening in Israel. We are in an unhealthy reality, which is dragging us down. Everyone must get under the stretcher. A Haredi cannot receive the privilege of sitting in a yeshiva and not fighting. Avrechim fought in Jewish history. And I say this as someone who came to comfort 21 families of fallen soldiers immediately after they received the difficult news.

"I am afraid that someone will try to sabotage the elections in one way or another. I was a company commander in the army, in the paratroopers, and I say this openly. Even if someone is in a senior position, he is not above the law."

Will you run for another term? "Certainly. From the moment I entered the position in 2018, I went through the hardest years. A year after I entered the position, the Corona broke out, and when it ended, Bennett was appointed Prime Minister and he lived in Ra'anana, so all the time we dealt with road blocks, and then the war broke out. For seven and a half years I did not leave the country. Every time we wanted to go on vacation, something happened."

Could it be that Bennett will be appointed Prime Minister again, you know... "He promised that if that happens, he will not live in Ra'anana."