Nature and archaeology or housing in Modiin

I don't know my opinion on the following matter. I understand the concern - it is a shame to lose an historic site, a spot of nature, for some more housing. On the other hand, we have a housing shortage, people need places to live. Where many of us live, be it in Modiin or in bet Shemesh or in Jerusalem or in many other places around the country, hilltops had to be razed, nature had to be destroyed, so that there would be housing for us to buy. If there is an alternative to the Givat HaTitorah location, it should definitely be considered. if there is not, I don't know which should have higher priority - the nature and archaeology or the housing - so, read below the argument of Rimonah Traub.

 Guest Post by Rimonah Traub

Givat Hatitora is very important to the people of Modiin and should be of national importance.

On the 18th of February the Regional Housing Committee will be meeting to finally decide if 750 housing units will be built on Titora. This has been a long and protracted struggle and is now an imminent threat, as the building contractors usually win.

The Givah is the most incredible piece of real estate; the hilltop holds so much evidence of our heritage. Archaeologically all periods of history are represented, amounting to 6000 years of material. Botanically the hilltop is a rarity, during the spring, it is literally covered in over 80 different types of wildflowers.  There are also many animals, reptiles and birds that inhabit Titora.

For a fuller history and description of Titora please see my blog posting; http://israelcamerafocus.blogspot.co.il/p/titora-modiin.html

We are addressing the petition and e-mails to the mayor, in show of support for a muncipal plan to make Titora into a protected reserve.  We feel that we need to use the petition in order to make sure that the mayor acts on his word, as this is the third mayor of Modiin who have paid lip service to this issue, but has shown no concrete action.

The petition has received support from the Society of Protection of Nature in Israel - Modiin and The Society for Preservation of Sites and Landscape in Modi’in.

The petition was started on Sunday evening, 10 February, to date we have

1,814 signatures.

The link to the petition is;

http://www.atzuma.co.il/titora

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