After a long joint work of the IDF and the Ministry of Defense, the Engineering and Construction Division of the Ministry of Defense publicized a tender worth hundreds of millions of shekels for the establishment of the N’vei Tzedek camp: a legal center and a central prison base for the military, to be established in Beit Lid.

This is a huge construction project of more than 30,000 square meters, with a total area of ​​150 dunams, with a new and advanced military prison with about 1,000 detention slots to replace the mythological prisons: Prison 4 in Tzrifin and Prison 6 between Atlit and Haifa, as well as replacing the antiquated military courts.

The N’vei Tzedek project is one of the main milestones in the Shoham project (marketing and relocation of camps) for the historic evacuation of IDF bases from city centers, in order to build tens of thousands of housing units.

The new legal framework will include the Military Advocate General’s Office, the military courts from all over the country (Haifa, Jaffa, Kastina and Tzrifin) and of course the military prisons for both male and female soldiers.

Each cell will measure 4.5 square meters and rooms will contain TVs, beds, toilet and shower for each cell. The project will meet the green building standard of at least one star and will be built in green construction – the planning of both the buildings and the environment will be the maximum utilization of the energy. The sun will also return water for irrigation of vegetation and the use of environmental building materials.

For the first time in the IDF, the prison will remove garbage by advanced method, and the compound, both the legal and prison facilities, will be linked to each other and will be able to walk both to the employment areas inside and outside the prison.

“Neve Tzedek is a complex engineering project, but no less important is a value-based project for the establishment of a respected courtroom, which enables the preservation of human dignity, respect for the law and the public debate,” said Erez Cohen, deputy director general of the Engineering and Construction Division of the Ministry of Defense.

“Therefore, in the planning of the ‘Kirya’, we invested a great deal of thought so that every soldier who passes through it would receive the best conditions that would ultimately improve his trust in the military justice system,” Cohen added.

“This is a particularly challenging project, in light of its uniqueness, which requires functional planning that meets the basic needs of the prisoners on the one hand, and for ensuring an efficient and efficient working environment for the prison guards and the military justice system, on the other hand, while maintaining the separation of powers and the implementation of sustainable construction in a respectful and modest manner”, said Major Seri Mansour, one of the project managers.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)