(IsraelNN.com) In addition to Harish in the Triangle region, just south of the Galilee, another hareidi-religious city is on the Housing Ministry drawing boards: Kasif, between Be’er Sheva and Arad.

The future city’s location at the Tel Arad junction, ten kilometers west of Arad and less than 30 from Be’er Sheva, has been approved by the government. Environmentalist groups, however, hope to thwart the intention.

The plan is to build the city on 4,750 dunams, or 1.83 square miles, of land – 10% larger than Beitar Illit and about the same as Modiin Illit, two other relatively new hareidi cities, both located in Judea and Samaria. Some 10,000 housing units are to be built, for a planned population of 50,000; Beitar Illit and Modiin Illit both have more than 30,000 people and are growing.

The government decision approving Kasif notes two issues that will be solved: the acute housing shortage for the hareidi population, and the desire to encourage settlement in the Negev.

The Sephardic-hareidi Shas party has called for three new hareidi cities, in the north, center and south of Israel.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) responded that existing communities and towns in the region should be expanded instead of building new ones. SPNI says that building new towns, “including the construction of homes, developing infrastructures such as roads, electricity, sewage and water, stands in opposition to the planning policy, spoils the skyline, reduces the amount of open areas, mars the continguity of open areas… and leads to ecological damage.”

Earlier this month, the National Planning and Construction Council postponed a decision on the establishment of the new hareidi city of Harish, just south of the Galilee. Local town councils, both Jewish and Arab, as well as environmentalist groups, raised many objections to the new town.

Currently, cities considered hareidi-religious include Elad (population 30,000), Beitar Illit (31,000), Modiin Illit (38,000), Kiryat Yearim (3,300, Rechasim (8,800), and Emanuel (2,700). The total hareidi population in Israel was estimated at 290,000 in 2002, and is expected to grow to a million by 2025.