JERUSALEM — An Israeli town with close ties to Central New Jersey is facing a political crisis, with its mayor and entire city council having been ousted by Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit.

On Monday, Sheetrit fired Arad Mayor Moty Brill and his city council, saying that Brill had not succeeded in passing his 2007 municipal budget more than eight months into the year.

The Negev municipality is a sister community to the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey under the Jewish Agency Partnership 2000, or P2K, program. Partnership officials said the relationship, which includes financial support and exchange programs, would go on as normal despite the firings.

The dismissals took effect immediately after Brill was summoned to a hearing Monday at the Jerusalem office of Interior Ministry director-general Aryeh Bar.

Arad-Tamar P2K director Shimon Shamila said he would work with whomever will succeed Brill on the new Youth Futures program, a $350,000 annual project for at-risk youth that is set to be launched in September.

"We were sad to hear about Brill leaving, because his departure causes instability, but we are continuing to move forward with our partnership with New Jersey," Shamila said. "We hope his leaving won't delay the work we are trying to do. It also hurts us personally, because he was discovered by Partnership 2000."

Amy Cooper, associate vice president of the Central federation and its director of financial resource development, said that the firing would have no bearing on the partnership. "Three years ago, the partnership decided to bring in Israeli lay leaders to chair the Israeli Steering Committee, replacing the mayors of Arad and the Tamar Regional Council," she said.

A former nuclear engineer at Israel's unacknowledged nuclear reactor in Dimona, Brill first became involved in public life in Arad through a P2K young leadership program. He was elected mayor in November 2003, replacing veteran mayor Bezalel Tabib, who retired after 15 years in office.

Brill, who joined the Kadima Party of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Sheetrit last year, gradually lost the support of his political allies on the city council, making it impossible for him to pass the budget and conduct other important city business.

"Neither the mayor nor the council members fulfilled their responsibilities," a ministry spokesman said. "They never reached an agreement on the priorities of the city."

Brill reacted angrily to the decision, calling it illegal and vowing to get the decision overturned by Israel's Supreme Court. The court was expected to deliver a verdict by Wednesday. Legal officials said it was very unlikely that the court would overturn the ministry's decision, but Brill said he thought otherwise.

"I do not have any parting words for the people of New Jersey, because they will continue to visit me as mayor of Arad at least until the end of my term," Brill said. "We are trying to get things reversed. But it's just a job. It's not my life."

Sheetrit is expected to make a decision on Brill's replacement in the upcoming days. The deputy head of the ministry's southern region, Avi Heller, was appointed interim mayor on Tuesday for a period that he said could last anywhere from one day to one month.

Heller is a lieutenant colonel in the IDF reserves. He recently served for two years as acting chairman of the local Ramat Hovav industrial council.

But Kadima officials said they expected Sheetrit to appoint a senior politician from the party. They noted that when the mayor of the nearby development town Yeroham was fired, former Labor Party chairman Amram Mitzna was appointed mayor and that he had succeeded in rehabilitating the troubled town.

In his first months in office, Brill challenged Israel's Ministry of Welfare, took on the Knesset's Social Affairs Committee, sparred with the Israeli Water Company, endured a strike, and survived an earthquake.

He then had a high-profile fight with the mayor of the nearby Tamar Regional Council, Dov Litvinoff. At the height of the dispute, Brill climbed Masada and stayed there for weeks to protest Tamar's getting property tax revenues he thought his city deserved.

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Garden State to desert town

THE NEW JERSEY/Delaware-Arad/Tamar Partnership 2000 venture has provided an average of $450,000 each year to fund ongoing projects in Arad and the Tamar region.

Along with other Jewish federations in New Jersey and Delaware, the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey supports volunteer networks, leadership development, programming for all ages, enhancement of social services, business development, integration of new immigrants, and cultural activities in the region.

The partnership has helped small start-up businesses, built a school based on the principles of the Israel-based Institute for Democratic Education, fostered business growth through an economic development unit, arranged care packages for Israeli soldiers, and coordinated people-to-people visits between Americans and Israelis.