Harish-Katzir
Harish-KatzirIsrael news photo: Harish-Katzir Local Counci

Construction work on 6,000 housing units in the town of Harish is about to begin, according to the local authority head, Rav Nissim Dahan. Harish is located in north-central Israel, between Hadera and Afula. The first wave of building is planned to reach 10,500 units, and 3,000 more are planned for the future.

The town is planned for hareidi-religious Jews. After an unsuccessful stint as a kibbutz, it was intended as a town for the general Jewish population but Arab riots in 2000 scared away potential homebuyers. A government decision to allow an Arab crime clan uprooted from Ramle to settle in Harish made the town become even less attractive.
 
“We have received the statutory approvals of the special committee, the zoning plan has been approved, and we are talking about 6,000 housing units,” Dahan told Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew-language service.
 
Local Arabs and some residents of Harish – including members of the Hare Krishna sect who settled in one of its neighborhoods – mounted a campaign against the planned hareidi town but “all but one of the appeals to the High National Council [for Construction and Planning] have been rejected, and we can live with that one change,” said Rav Dahan. The path is clear to begin marketing, and work on the ground will begin in a few weeks, he added.
 
There had been doubts over whether hareidi Jews would want to move into the town, which is relatively distant from most hareidi concentrations. However, demand for the town has been great, Rav Dahan explained. “Within a few weeks’ time 20,000 people have already registered for 10,500 units, with each one paying [NIS] 300 to 500 shekels in ‘proof of intentions money’”.
 
Another 3,000 units could also be built in a second phase of construction, he said. In 24 months’ time, he said, the first 5,000 families could begin moving in. 
 
The demand is not surprising in view of the severe housing shortage hareidi Jews have been struggling with for years. Hareidi leaders originally wanted the town to be even larger, with 20 or 25 thousand units, but these plans were shot down after neighboring local authorities protested what they said was encroachment on their territory .
 
The town’s current residents – most of whom are not hareidi Jews – will be able to remain but the town will have a hareidi majority, he said. 
 
The religious-Zionist core group that has lived in Harish for more than ten years will also be able to remain, and several hundred houses will be allocated to religious Zionists, Rav Dahan said. The core group stood fast over the past decade in the face of countless Arab provocations and prevented the town from falling into Muslim hands.