The cabinet during its weekly meeting on Sunday, 7 Kislev 5774 approved the established of two new communities in the Negev, Kasif and Chiran. To the surprise of some, objections to the plan are being heard from the left-wing, environmentalists, and even chareidim.

Kasif: The New Chareidi City

Kasif is planned to be situated west of Arad, at the intersection of Routes 31 and 80. The decision dates back to the discussion of the new chareidi city of 60,000 residents from 2007 – now approved. The master plan calls for the building of an industrial park that will provide employment for residents. In addition, a new rail line will significantly improve transportation from the southern area.

Chiran: The New Dati Leumi Community

Chiran is planned to be situated east of Metar and it will include 2,500 housing units for the dati leumi community.

Developing the South

The government hopes to break ground in the coming months towards actualizing the construction of a total of 37,000 housing units in the two communities. In addition, the government has plans to construct tens of thousands of homes in the south, in cities including Beersheva, Arad, Ofakim, Dimona, Eilat, Yerucham and Sderot. This is part of the master plan to alleviate the nationwide housing shortage, to combat the Bedouin takeover of southern Israel and to provide housing for IDF personnel as the new nationwide headquarters of the IDF is being constructed in the Negev.

Kalman Lipskind wisely points out in his column in Maariv that when settlers built in yishuvim throughout Yehuda and Shomron, the left-wing shouted “occupation”. Now the government wishes to build in the Negev and the left-wing shouts “you are ousting the Bedouins”. He posits that from the Israeli left-wing view, only PA (Palestinian Authority) residents may build in Yehuda and Shomron, Israeli Arabs in the Galil, and Bedouins in the south. This makes for an interesting hashkafa.

Dati Leumi Community Has a Head Start

As part of its vision to save the Negev and Galil from Arab and Bedouin occupation, the dati leumi community has been settling those areas in recent years. One can speak with Shmuel Reifman, who heads the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council and confirm the dati leumi settlers have been heading south during the past years in an effort to stop the Bedouin takeover of the Negev. This has the left-wing angered, as they feel they must champion the cause of the poor defenseless Bedouins, who have been living without basic infrastructure and have become nomads as a result of the State of Israel.

Let’s Look at Chiran

Um el-Chiran as the Bedouins call it finds itself as a very small area included in the new dati leumi community of Chiran that was approved by the cabinet for the new dati leumi community. The Bedouin community in Um el-Chiran consists of a number of illegal buildings, actually several tens of scattered structures belonging to residents of the Abu Elkian tribe. The members of this tribe were removed from that area following the establishment of the state in 1948 from the area of Kibbutz Shuval.

The Negev contains hundreds of areas that the Bedouins are willing to swear belong to them, citing their forefathers settled those areas. Um el-Chiran is not among those hundreds of areas. The residents of that area will also admit they are settled on state-owned land, and they do not have ownership claims, but this is not relevant for the left-wing Meretz party and its supporters.

Actually, eviction and demolition orders have been filed against a number of the buildings in that area.

The State Has Not Abandoned Them

The state has not abandoned the Bedouins in that area. Over the years, at a cost of tens of millions of NIS, entire neighborhoods were allocated and modern infrastructure was built to permit the Bedouins to resettle. This includes water lines, sewage, electric lines, phone infrastructure and whatever is necessary to permit them to build homes and hook into the national grid. The Bedouin families of the Abu Elkian tribe were given a dunam plot of land to build a home. This is an extremely generous plot of land on Israeli standards. Even more insane is the fact that if a man has three wives, each wife received the same plot of land to build a home. And to add to the madness, they were given compensatory payment for their illegal building which they had to evacuate.

So they received free infrastructure, free land, and they were compensated for the illegal homes they settled on state land.

Most of the tribal families took advantage of the generous offer. Few did not and they are the families that remain in Um el-Chiran today. They preferred to continue living as they do, without sewage and electricity, and without a legal home, opting to continue being squatters on state land. They made a point of never fencing themselves in and did their utmost to spread out as much as possible.

Will the Supreme Court Become Involved?

One can almost bet that between the left-wing and the environmentalists the Supreme Court will become involved, sooner rather than later. This will possibly halt or at the very least delay the planned southern cities, which are critical towards beginning to alleviate the national housing shortage.

Chareidi Objections Too!

One cannot only turn to Meretz and the green activists as the only ones objecting to the planned cities.

In his column in the daily Hamodia, Yaakov Reinitz attacks Housing Minister Uri Ariel and his plan, writing “the chareidim are not some ancient tribe”, obviously not pleased with the plan to settle 60,000 chareidim in the Negev.

Minister Ariel explained that he feels the plan to construct 12,000 housing units in Kasif will represent a serious effort towards providing badly-needed housing for chareidim. For Ariel, who announced he has placed solving the chareidi housing shortage high on his priority list, the cabinet approval comes as a significant victory.

Reinitz however writes, “Kasif, no thanks!” He feels that part of planning a city for a specific tzibur must include researching the surrounding area and its realities towards determining if the targeted tzibur will agree to move to that area.

Reinitz uses Charish as an example, citing the latter is quite suited to the chareidi community with its proximity to Highway 6 and situated in a developed region and therefore, has the offerings of a developed area of the center of the country. He feels that Charish has the offerings making it a good starting point, unlike Kasif.

Another example cited by Reinitz is Elad. Situated in proximity to Bnei Brak, Petach Tikvah and Highway 6, the government knew from the early stages that the apartments would be in demand.

Reinitz feels that even in a reality of a severe housing shortage, a planned area must be suited to meet the needs of the target community. He feels that even the minimal needs of the chareidi tzibur do not exist in Kasif, adding most Bedouins are not even interested in that area, which Reinitz points out is too far and “leads to nowhere”. He feels it is too far from civilization and nothing the Ministry of Housing can do will change this reality to make it attractive to the chareidi tzibur.

“And this is without mentioning a word as to how many years it will take to plan the city, the objections of the environmentalists, the posting of records and tenders, landscaping, and then the actual construction” he writes, adding it is years off from being a reality. “At this rate, when the boys in Charish will celebrate their bar mitzvah as the first residents may be entering Kasif, if at all.”

Reinitz launches an attack against the Ministries of Housing and the Interior for discarding the chareidi community. “The Minister of the Interior and Ministry of Housing are certain for one reason or another that the chareidi tzibur is an ancient tribe that can be lured by playing a flute along with the shepherds and their herds, to file in an orderly line into their apartments in Kasif”.

And finally, Reinitz recommends “Before anyone dumps tens of millions on planning, it would be wise to go check what is taking place in Har Yonah where tenders were advertised for 1,200 housing units. Have any of them been sold?”

Reinitz concludes with advice, not to give up on Charish, even after the tenders authority disqualified many of the chareidi non-profits trying to obtain apartments there. He cites that 1,300 chareidi families are already registered there and it is clear that the city will have a chareidi character. He feels that Charish offers the ability to buy a home that will be ready to move into in two years, and that is realistic.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)