Beitar Illit
Beitar IllitFlash 90

Betar Illit Mayor Meir Rubinstein addressed a letter to the haredi parties in the Knesset, demanding that they work to add Beitar Illit to the law to extend Israeli sovereignty over Maaleh Adumim.

Rubenstein wrote to the leaders of the hardei parties, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, Deputy Minister Meir Porush and Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni, that "Beitar Illit is an Israeli city and a large center of the haredi population, with more than 50,000 residents, large variety of public institutions, yeshivot and seminaries, and enough building reserves to, with G-d's help, have thousands of additional units."

"I welcome the initiative for Israeli sovereignty in Maaleh Adumim. But I really wonder how such a law could be proposed without providing a response to the haredi public and to Betar Illit, which is a big city near the green line. On behalf of the more than fifty thousand inhabitants of Betar Illit, I demand that the haredi MKs to add Betar Illit to the law extending Israeli sovereignty over Maaleh Adumim.

The letter further notes that parts of Betar Illit are only a few yards away from the so-called 'green line.' "The western site of the city faces [the Israeli city of] Beit Shemesh."

"It is unthinkable that in this Government, in which haredi parties play a central part, that it could be possible to initiate such a law while ignoring the needs of the haredi community and the central city of Beitar Illit."

Rubenstein said that extending Israeli law over Beitar Illit would not be "only a declarative step, but a step which has tremendous significance and which will bring prosperity to the city in every way, for them, and for the residents of the city."

He added that the rise of the Trump administration "constitutes a golden opportunity which I doubt we will see again in the next few decades. To extend sovereignty over Maaleh Adumim without Betar Illit would cause endless problems for which there will no solution."