Opponents to continued construction in the new neighborhoods of Ramat Beit Shemesh Daled and Hey, which include over 15,000 housing units, failed in their petition to the courts to halt the building. The Jerusalem District Court rejected the petition and compelled petitioners to pay 25,000 NIS in legal fees to each of the defendants in the case.
In recent years, Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul and Councilman Moshe Muntag, who is responsible for construction, have begun moving ahead from the planning to building stage despite formidable opposition. Opposition has come from many including environmentalists and anti-chareidi elements. There are also concerns regarding adequate employment in the area as well as shopping centers, public land and parks.
The Ministry of the Interior National Appeals Board rejected a petition to halt the project, prompting petitioners to head to court. The reasons cited for the opposition in this case surrounded environmental concerns, seeking to halt the new housing and replace that plan with a national park. In his 44-page ruling, Justice David Mintz addresses the petitioners point by point. He praises the professionalism of the various planning boards and government agencies. Justice Mintz details how City Hall and other agencies took the environment into consideration as a park that will encompass an area of 5,500 dunams has been included in the plan along with other components of an environmentally friendly plan. The court cites the legitimate need to continue building as the nation is in the midst of a critical housing shortage and this plan is a step in the direction of alleviating that situation.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
Can’t they at least wait to build until Road 38 – the primary access road to Beit Shemesh – is expanded to two lanes in each direction??? It’s presently a narrow two-lane road (think: Route 52 in the Catskills) for a city of approaching 80,000. There a numerous other infrastructure projects that were either not taken into account or were inadequately addressed in the recent building boom in Beit Shemesh, or were included in the plans and then not built, but at an absolute minimum, the access issue has to be addressed.
It’s things like this that many who oppose the current Mayor and his regime have issues with – not the fact that he is a Shasnik. It says about Betzalel that he was a “Chacham Lev” in that he realized what had to be built before what – and such Chochmas HaLev seems to be missing in Beit Shemesh.
an Israeli Yid
It is not Mayor Abutbul’s responsibility to deal with road infrastructure to Beit Shemesh. His responsibility is to deal with the city itself. The city is woefully short of housing and this is the problem the Mayor is thankfully addressing. As an Israeli Yid, #1, you will surely know that nothing moves in Israel without pressure. It is the pressure of knowing that there will be another 15,000 housing units that will get the Government to allocate the necessary funds for infrastructure to the city. That is the way things work in Israel. The last elections showed that the opposition to the housing project is because the housing allocation will largely be taken up by the Haredi community. That is what those opposing it do not want. lets call a spade a spade. The Judge gave a very considered judgment when he clearly brushed aside the complaints by those opposing new housing, as indeed had the Ministry of the Interior National Appeals Board. Neither the Board or the Judge are Haredi yes men.