Jaffa
JaffaFlash 90

The Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday canceled a a campaign to offer subsidized, "Buyer's Price," housing in Jaffa to Arabs only.

In its ruling, the court slammed the State for working to hide the fact that the apartments were only marketed to Arabs, while trying to prevent legal opposition to the process.

Israel Hayom reported that Judge Kobi Vardi complained that the State did not reveal to the court the identity of the person who made the decision, and ruled that the State had presented him with facts which were not true. Vardi also criticized the Attorney General, who despite the court's order did not take a position on the legal question of allocating apartments for Arabs only.

When the apartments were put up for auction in the framework of the "Buyer's Price" (Mechir Lemishtaken) program, the State decided that 30 units would be set aside for "locals who are residents of Jaffa." Later the Tel Aviv municipality decided that these would be only Arabs, but did not publicize it, and the decision was exposed by happenstance by a team of lawyers, who then appealed in the name of Jaffa's Jewish residents.

Vardi ruled that the municipality and the State did not act with transparency and hid the fact that the auction was for Arabs only, and as a result, there have been no appeals until the current appeal. "What is improper about this is that the true intention to set the apartments aside for Arab residents of Jaffa was hidden, even though this was not stated anywhere."

He added that when he turned to a representative of the State, "no real explanation or answer was given," and when he wondered who had made the decision to set the apartments aside for Arabs only, "the answers were evasive, and did not give any answer to these basic questions. It is hard to believe that the State makes 'hush-hush' decisions. This is hard to understand."

Following this, Vardi canceled the auction and chastised the state, which should have "done this in an organized and worthy fashion, without throwing off their administrative obligations." At the same time, he did not deal with the actual issue of setting aside apartments for Arabs only, saying, "I am not expressing an opinion on the actual issue, which is important, crucial, and of principle."