The Jerusalem Municipality: Services, Activities and What the City Offers Residents

The Jerusalem Municipality, the Iriya, based at Safra Square next to the Old City walls, is the body behind your arnona bill, the community centre round the corner, the summer camps, the parks, the festivals, the rubbish collection and the parking permit on your windscreen. Newcomers meet it first as a tax and only later as a service. This guide lists what it offers and how to reach it in English.

106: the hotline that fixes your street

Dial 106 from any phone, or use the city's app, to report a broken streetlight, a missed rubbish collection, a pothole, a water leak on the pavement, noise from a building site, a stray hazard, or to ask about arnona, parking permits and permits for a garden or a balcony. It is the single most useful municipal number, English is generally available, and reports get a reference number you can chase.

Arnona and the resident discount

Arnona is the municipal property tax, paid by the occupant, and it is where new olim leave money on the table: there is a discount for new immigrants for a limited period, claimed with the rental contract and the Teudat Oleh, and it does not apply retroactively if you miss the window. Set it up in your first weeks; the first-month checklist and the renting guide explain how.

Community centres: the Minhal Kehilati

Every neighbourhood has a minhal kehilati, a community administration with a community centre (matnas) that runs after-school activities (chugim), sports, adult classes, senior programmes, playgroups, holiday events and the municipal summer camps (kaytanot). It is also the address for local planning notices and for the neighbourhood's own newsletter and WhatsApp channels. Registration for chugim opens at the end of summer and the popular ones fill in days; find your centre on the municipality site by neighbourhood, and read our neighbourhoods guide if you are still choosing where to live.

Children: gan, school, camps and afternoons

Registration for municipal gan and school runs through the city's education department in a fixed window each winter for the following September; missing it means a waiting list. Our gan guide explains the age bands and the choices. After the school day, the tzaharon afternoon programme in gan and lower school is municipally supervised and paid, and the community centre's chugim fill the rest. In summer the municipal kaytanot bridge the first weeks of the holiday; August is on you, which is where private camps come in.

Parks, sport and libraries

The city's big green spaces are Sacher Park below the Knesset, the Train Track Park running from the German Colony to Malha, Gazelle Valley in the south-west, Teddy Park by Jaffa Gate and the Bloomfield Garden above it, and the Jerusalem Forest on the western edge. The municipality runs sports halls and courts through the community centres, and a network of public libraries, several with English-language sections, that lend to residents for a small annual fee. Pools are mostly private or country-club style; the community centre knows which is nearest and cheapest.

Festivals and events

The municipality and its cultural arm fill the calendar: the Festival of Light in the Old City in early summer, the Jerusalem Marathon in spring, the winter culture festival with free late-night events in the city centre, the arts and crafts fair in the valley below the Old City walls in August, Independence Day in Sacher Park, Sukkot street events and Chanukah lightings. Most are free or cheap, and residents sometimes get discounts on the paid ones through the city's resident scheme; the municipality's site and app list what is on this month.

Parking permits and cars

Residents of neighbourhoods with blue-and-white parking can apply for a resident parking permit (tav chanaya) that makes parking in their own zone free or discounted, using the car registration and proof of address. Everywhere else the blue-and-white kerbs are paid through the Pango or Cellopark apps. The car guide covers buying and the registration you need first.

Rubbish, recycling and bulky items

Household rubbish goes in the shared bins on the street, collected several times a week. Separate bins exist for plastic bottles, cardboard, paper, packaging and glass in most neighbourhoods, and bottles with a deposit are worth returning to the supermarket instead. Old furniture and appliances are collected on a scheduled bulky-waste day; call 106 for the day in your street before you carry the sofa down.

Everything else

• Dogs must be licensed and vaccinated through the municipal veterinary service; the community centre or 106 has the address.
• Water is not the municipality but Hagihon, the city water company, which bills separately; the renting guide explains the transfer.
• Registration of address is with the Interior Ministry, not the city, but the arnona account is what proves you live here to everyone else.
• Complaints and appeals on arnona and fines go through the municipality's site, in Hebrew; the community centre can usually help you file.

The Hebrew for all of this is in the vocabulary guide. If a department has moved or a procedure changed, tell us and we will fix it.