Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Modiin has responded officially to the approach taken by Modiin Ilit regarding the upcoming new attraction in the area.

Modiin Ilit is involved in preparing an archaeological park, Hirbat Bad-Issa (Bad-Issa Ruins) that has won governmental support for being operated according to haredi  oversight - the programs will not talk about the worklld being millions of years old or anything like that, but will discuss the history based on mishna and gemara and divrei chazal. Rav Gutterman, the mayor, had also originally told the press that the park would only be open to haredi visitors. That upset many, especially the residetns of nearby Modiin who have a big park of their own that is visited by many residents of Modiin Ilit during the vacation periods.

Now, with the information being posted officially on the Modiin Ilit municipal website, Modiin has responded officially. While I could not find on the site anywhere that it says the park will only accept haredi visitors, it does say that the atmosphere will be set by haredi decisions and all historical details will be only based on sources from Chazal.

Modiin is upset that the park will be designated for the haredi public and all program information will only be according to that, and the visitor experience will be designed for the haredi public alone, and has now announced that Park Anabe will only be open to residents of Modiin (and their guests) during the Sukkos vacation. If they can keep us out of their parks, we can keep them out of our parks.

While one might suggest this will not stand up in court, as such discriminatory policy has already been challenged (such as in park Ranana) and declared as illegal, they have legal council stating that such policy is illegal when it is permanent. When it is in effect at only certain times of the year it is seemingly legal. I imagine it can still be challenged, and then it will be determined if their council was right or wrong, but they are at least going to try to limit entry to only residents of Modiin.

Good fences make good neighbors. It's a shame, but maybe that's what they need... They can stay in their neighborhood, and they can stay in their neighborhood... Now Modiin wont complain about being overrun by Modiin Ilit haredim during vacations, and the haredim wont have to see the secular or dati leumi people at all, not in their own ghetto and now they wont have a reason to go to Modiin either...

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