UNESCO: The death penalty for Tel Aviv residents
UNESCO: The death penalty for Tel Aviv residents

Honest disclosure: The writer owns an old Tel Aviv apartment which he inherited from his parents.

Many Tel Aviv apartment owners and dwellers know that for years there has been no progress made in putting into effect what is known as T.M.A. 38 (the Hebrew acronym for The National Outline Plan that regulates zoning and development) in that city.

Thousands of residential structures in the coastal city were built according to appallingly low standards during the previous century, and are certain to become death traps in the case of a serious earthquake of the type that occurs in Israel every few decades. Most were built without reinforced concrete "safe rooms" for protection against rockets, the type of rooms which tend to be needed in the area every so often. A strong earthquake or a rocket attack that hits them will turn these Tel Aviv buildings into graveyards for their residents. Sad, but true.

A strong earthquake or a rocket attack that hits them will turn these Tel Aviv buildings into graveyards for their residents. Sad, but true.
On a more mundane note, most of these old buildings have no provision for parking in a city where parking is at a premium. They are built on narrow streets, which will turn into death traps in case of emergency. Infrastructure has rotted, the sewer system is outdated, the pipes leak, the city is aging and more and more areas are turning into slums. The only thing keeping the average age down is the number of young people who rent these apartments after the death of their owners (such as my parents, may they rest in peace) while mice and cockroaches multiply exponentially.

Then along came the lawmakers and opened an avenue for urban renewal. They called it T.M.A. 38, a law in aid of those wishing to refurbish existing buildings, strengthen their foundations, improve their physical condition - or take them down and build new ones, complete with underground parking. Each new or renewed apartment would receive a "safe room," thereby transforming these homes from potential tombs to protective shields for their residents.

What could be more important than this plan? What could be more important than the lives of these apartment owners and their tenants?

UNESCO knows the answer. In it comes, the organization that proved this week that its entire approach is anti-Jewish by passing a revolting and delusional statement about Jerusalem. It proclaimed the 4000 Bauhaus buildings in Tel Aviv a "white city" (white? are they color blind by any chance?) and a World Cultural Heritage Site of the kind that it is crucial (to whom?) to preserve unchanged -   a proclamation preventing urban renewal, strengthening the construction and building those "safe rooms." By doing this, UNESCO has declared that the lives of Tel Aviv residents and their ability to survive earthquakes and attacks are less important than the external appearance of their dwellings, most of which are actually quite ugly because of their age, peeling plaster and hodge podge additions like porches and air conditioners added haphazardly to their outer walls over the years.

They claim that many of the buildings were constructed in the Bauhaus style, and therefore must be preserved forever and ever to the end of time - exactly as they are now . Lovely. Why, however, not dictate terms to the urban renewal architects and insist that if they destroy one of these homes, they must ensure that the new home built in its place is in the same style? The only difference would be that the old building had three or four storeys, and the new one will have six or more storeys, so that selling the additional apartments can pay for the renewal as well as the underground parking lot. Is that a problem? Will that destroy the sacred Bauhaus style?  

On the contrary, the 80-year-old Bauhaus buildings are covered with crumbling plaster, which is either falling off or turning dark and ugly from absorbing the coal and dust of decades. The new buildings - in the Bauhaus style, of course - can be coated with materials that will keep them white and shining for years. Not only that, but the planners can be forced to build hidden air conditioning units so that there will be no more thickets of air conditioners covering the outer walls of the buildings. 

There are those who claim that there are not enough schools for the added population the higher buildings will attract. They are mistaken. The people who will find it possible to purchase these new apartments will not be young couples, so that there will be no need for new schools. If the population remains mostly young unmarried tenants as it is today, there will be no flood of children who need more classrooms than there are now. 

The detractors then say that the whole idea is economically motivated and that the safety issues are a smokescreen. So let the guys who run Tel Aviv's municipality bring experts to calculate the point at which the renewal project is economically viable but not excessively profitable and let that be the amount of building expansion allowed. Where there's a will there's a way.

And now for my advice. I call it the "malbenim (oblong blocks)  program."  A malben is an oblong shaped group of homes surrounded on all four sides by streets. The idea is to destroy and rebuild all the houses in a given malben, build an underground two storey parking lot along the entire area under the malben with several entrances and exits for pedestrians and drivers - and aboveground a group of modern buildings combining apartments, offices, stores, restaurants and green spaces of any size. This malben will provide for homes, workplaces and entertainment and allow people to live a short distance from both, helping urban transportation immeasurably, reducing air pollution and enhancing the quality of life. The builder should be told that he will be hired to do the job if he finds a way to widen the surrounding streets as much as possible, even if some of the land of the malben is needed to achieve that goal.  (If this plan has been presented by someone else before me, I apologize.)

The main thing that must guide Tel Aviv's municipal leaders is the life of the ordinary Tel Aviv residents, who count for much more than the decisions of an openly anti-Israel and anti-Jewish organization such as UNESCO, to whom Israeli lives are expendable. The thought of the remnants of the city's residents who might survive an earthquake and war must serve as the compass directing municipal decisions, and any victim of the delay in implementing T.M.A. 38 will be on the city council members' consciences, along with anyone who causes any kind of delay from an outer source.

Every step necessary must be taken so as to encourage Tel Aviv's apartment owners to begin the process of urban renewal. Whoever does not go forward runs backwards" as we all know, and Tel Aviv is going backwards at a rapid pace due to the delay in implementing T.M.A. 38.  

Translated by Rochel Sylvetsky, Arutz Sheva Op-ed and Judaism editor.                                                                                                                                  .