Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) reported on Monday that Hebrew University has canceled a tender for two buildings that were used in the past as dormitories in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Yovel neighborhood.

The 64 housing units were at the heart of the controversy in the neighborhood between the growing chareidi sector and the veteran secularists, fearing if the buildings are purchased by chareidim, who wished to renovate them for young chareidi couples, the neighborhood would take an immediate geographic turn favoring the chareidim, a move they oppose.

Jerusalem City Councilman Yakir Segev called the event a “victory for the secularists” while attorney Elkana Holtzer, representing the chareidi buyers, lamented the fact the university permitted itself to fall prey to the media threats surrounding the chareidiazation of Jerusalem.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)