Construction on a new hareidi-religious city just south of the Galilee could begin in a number of months, while another one is being planned for the Negev.
Nissim Dahan, head of the Katzir-Harish Local Municipal Council, says that despite some local opposition, “the plans for the new city are coming along very nicely.” Specifically, he said, “the plans are just 2-3 months away from their final step – approval from the Interior Ministry, after which apartments can start being sold.”
Dahan, a former Health Minister and Shas party Knesset Member, appeared to agree that last step should not be too difficult; Shas party leader Eli Yishai is the Minister of the Interior.
Environmental and secular groups in the area that oppose the new city claim that it will be built on land confiscated from nearby kibbutzim and Arab villages, and will cause environmental damage. They also say that the existing infrastructures, which were built for a small-sized town, will have to be demolished and replaced by infrastructures for a city – a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Dahan, on the other hand, says that the new city will “be a great contribution” towards saving the area from being taken over demographically by the growing Arab population. He said some 22,000 housing units are planned to be built there.
The demographic problem in the area is acute. A small town named Mei-Ami, for instance, with some 60 families, appears to be in danger of being “swallowed up” by the nearby Arab city of Um el-Fahm (population 45,000). Houses in the Arab city are increasingly being built closer to Mei Ami, and the first Arab house on the road separating between the two is already standing.
The opponents of the new city maintain that the pastoral area is a growing attraction in light of its proximity to the new north-south Highway 6 and that families will move in if the government promotes it correctly. Proponents of the hareidi city, however, say that the only way Jewish growth can keep pace with Arab growth in the area is to build for the hareidi population, which would purchase apartments by the hundreds.
New City in the Negev
In the Negev, a new hareidi city is also being planned but is in the more initial stages. The Planning Issues Commission recommended on Tuesday to the National Planning Commission that a new city named Kasif be built in the Negev for the hareidi-religious population. The location of Kasis is to be at the Tel Arad junction, ten kilometers (six miles) west of Arad and 30 kilometers west of Be’er Sheva.
As with the new hareidi city in the north, Kasif is also seen as a solution to the growing housing crisis in the hareidi-religious population.