A legal dispute has erupted over the future operation of the new municipal country club in Beit Shemesh's Neve Shamir neighborhood, after residents petitioned the court against a municipal tender requiring the facility to operate with full gender separation and no family swimming hours.
The petition argues that the tender contradicts commitments made to residents when apartments were marketed in Neve Shamir as part of a general-character neighborhood. The petitioners said they proposed a compromise under which half of the pool's operating hours would be designated for separate swimming and the other half for family use, but the municipality rejected the proposal.
Neve Shamir was developed during the tenure of former Beit Shemesh mayor Dr. Aliza Bloch as part of a strategy to broaden the city's demographic makeup. While the Beit Shemesh D neighborhood was designated primarily for the haredi public, Neve Shamir was planned as a neighborhood intended to attract families from the general public alongside continued growth in the city's haredi areas.
The municipality's legal adviser argued that the country club is a citywide facility rather than one intended solely for Neve Shamir residents. The municipality also maintained that many haredi residents would avoid using the facility if family swimming hours were introduced, justifying separate hours throughout the day.
In response, residents filed a petition seeking to overturn the tender's conditions and require the municipality to provide both family swimming hours and hours designated for gender-separated use.
The petition claims the municipality spent years encouraging non-haredi families to move to Neve Shamir by promising public services that matched their lifestyle, and argues that the current policy violates the principle of equality.
The Beit Shemesh municipality had not responded to the petition at the time of publication.