Facing an annual Jewish emigration rate of 0.5 percent and an Arab population growing at 14 percent,  Nazareth Illit Mayor Shimon Gapso has decided to build a new Hareidi-religious neighborhood with 3,050 housing units in the coming year. Six-hundred families have already signed up for the initiative, called Har Yona Gimel, which received the backing of Interior Minister Eli Yishai.

Approval to construct a new neighborhood on the designated land was granted a decade ago and the Ministry of Construction and Housing has already invested NIS 130 million ($32.6 million) towards 10,000 housing units for the area. The new neighborhood will be conjoined with the 6,000 existing units in the Har Yona Alef and Har Yona Bet neighborhoods.