The National Planning Commission has approved the construction of a <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />new city in the Negev for the hareidi-religious population. To be named Kasif (Silvery), the new town will be built at the Tel Arad junction, ten kilometers (six miles) west of Arad and 30 kilometers west of Be’er Sheva. It will spread out over 4,750 dunams (almost 1,180 acres, over 1.8 square miles), and will have 10,000 housing units for some 50,000 people.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
No target date has been set for construction.
The commission overruled a series of objections in order to give its approval. Towns in the area expressed concern that they and the nearby metropolis of Be’er Sheva will not be able to deal with a massive influx of the low socio-economic hareidi population. They also said that the new town’s religious demands will “weigh heavily on the social network” and will even “deter quality population sectors.”
In addition, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) said the new city, in its new location, would mar the open horizon, would reduce the amount of open areas, and would cause ecological damage. SPNI said that the periphery should be strengthened not by building new cities, but by thickening existing towns.
As with the new planned hareidi city in the north, Harish, Kasif is also seen as a solution to the growing housing crisis in the hareidi-religious population.
Harish, planned for 70,000 people near Umm el-Fahm just south of the Galilee, is closer to actualization than is Kasif, says former Health Minister Nissim Dahan, now the mayor of Harish-Katzir. “We have received all the necessary authorizations, except for one,” he told Israel National News, “and that is the matan tokef, the final permit from the Interior Ministry.”
Dahan could not predict when this would be received, even though the Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, heads Dahan’s own Shas party. “Kasif, however, has received only initial approval; now it must begin the actual process, which could take years.”
Currently, cities in Israel that are considered hareidi-religious include Modi'in Illit-Kiryat Sefer (population 44,000), Beitar Illit (36,000), Elad (35,000), Rechasim (9,000), Kiryat Ye'arim-Telz Stone (3,400), and Emanuel (2,900). The total hareidi-religious population in Israel was estimated at 290,000 in 2002, and is expected to grow to one million by 2025.
