The ongoing dispute between Beit Shemesh City Hall and the Matte Yehuda Regional Council over borders has finally been put to rest. The Ministry of the Interior has accepted the agreement which will give 3,000 dunam (750 acres) to Beit Shemesh in the Har Tuv industrial area, which includes 600 dunam (150 acres) already constructed and 2,400 dunam (600 acres), with some of the latter already agreed upon and the remainder to be approved in the future.

Shas Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai moved to annex thousands of acres in the Har Tuv industrial park to Beit Shemesh, which is run by a Shas party mayor, but the Matte Yehuda Regional Council objected, unwilling to voluntarily give up the lucrative taxes generated by the industrial area.

For many companies, such as Angel’s Bakery, Har Tuv is a viable and less expensive alternative to Jerusalem, yet close enough for trucks to service the capital. It also provides facilitated access to Tel Aviv and other areas in the center of the country, making Har Tuv a premier location. The industrial area is located on Route 38 on the Beit Shemesh border. Working in Beit Shemesh’s favor is the city’s growth rate, the largest in Israel, doubling itself four times in the past 15 years.

The weekly BaKehilla reports that in 1992, Beit Shemesh’s municipal boundaries encompassed 12,500 dunam (3,125 acres). Since then, 38,000 dunam (9,500) have been added from Matte Yehuda green areas, bringing Beit Shemesh to the same area size as Tel Aviv. The population growth is no less impressive and the city is expected to surpass the 100,000 residents mark in the very near future. Experts estimate the city will double in size once again in the next decade, becoming one of the largest cities in Israel.

Matte Yehuda officials were not taking this sitting down and they took their case to the High Court of Justice. Now, with an agreement in place Beit Shemesh Mayor Rav Moshe Abutbul explained “we lost a few dreams while Matte Yehuda understood it would have to compromise. It was always my preference to reach an agreement as we did rather than have a legal battle resulting in a court-ordered solution”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)