“The housing shortage in Jerusalem is leading haredi families into the secular neighborhoods and in a matter of years there will be a demographic alteration of those neighborhoods,” hareidi-religious activist Chaim Miller said Monday. “This phenomenon is a result of the frustration that currently exists in the haredi public,” Miller said, “in the face of the Prime Minister's order to freeze construction in Jerusalem, and of the court's handling of the tenders in Beit Shemesh.
Miller heads “The Movement for Jerusalem and its Residents.”
The hareidi public is increasingly moving into the neighborhoods of Beit HaKerem, Kiryat Yovel, Kiryat Menachem, Rechavia, the German Colony and Talbiyeh,” Miller said. “This is not a phenomenon that we should be happy with and it is stoppable though decisions that would enable the hareidi public to build itself neighborhoods with the proper character.”
He added that the root of the problem is the freezing of tenders for hareidi apartment projects in Neveh Yaakov, Pisgat Ze'ev, Givat Ze'ev, Tel Tzion and Betar Illit. The projects were frozen by municipal elements following direct instructions from the Prime Minister's Bureau.
Miller warned that if Jerusalem.mayor Nir Barkat does not “steamroll” the prime minister into canceling the freeze, “the phenomenon of 'spilling over' to the secular neighborhoods will continue to pick up speed.”