“Is it proper in your view that mayors accused of criminal wrongdoing could run for re-election to their office?” This was one of the questions posed to State Comptroller Yosef Shapira and State Attorney Moshe Lador on Aug. 26 in a debate on corruption in local government that was part of the legal conference of the Tel Aviv District Bar Association.

The question was asked several times, in several ways, in light of the unfortunate fact that mayors who were indicted for corruption, like Shimon Gapso of Nazereth Illit and Itzik Rochberger of Ramat HaSharon, are running for re-election in the local elections on Oct. 22.  

What seems like the collapse of public norms, as an intolerable and distorted situation, did not move Lador and Shapira to make a moral statement on the phenomenon.  They preferred to evade the question.  

Thus, as opposed to Lador and Shapira’s approach of noninterference, last week’s High Court decision on Sept. 17 to remove Gapso and Rochberger from their offices should be praised.  This is a dramatically important stance for starting the process of purging local government of its Wild West character, as it has become a sort of unsupervised, lawless backyard, and in the last few years, fertile ground for corrupt practices.