Rejecting Kasif for the Haredi community

Just the other day the government passed a decision to build a few new towns in the southern region of Israel, including one called Kasif that would be designated, planned and designed specifically for the Haredi community.

Yesterday, the Haredi community, as per the editor of Hamodia newspaper, said thanks, but no thanks.

I don't have a copy of the newspaper, but according to Kikar, Hamodia ran an editorial called "Kasif, no thank you" in which the editor explains why they are not interested and why this solution will not work. He says that prior to planning a city they should first check if anyone would even be willing to live there.

The editor points to the new city being built up north, Harish. Harish, he says, is great - it is very close to the Road 6 cross-country toll road, with established cities nearby and not too far from the center of the country. Many people would be happy to live there. Elad as well - it is near other cities like Bnei Braq and Petach Tikva, it is near Road 6, and people want to live there.

In Kasif, however, nobody wants to live - even the Bedouin have abandoned the land in that area. It is not near anything, it is isolated and distant. It itself is going to take a long time to plan and build, along with fighting the legal challenges that will come up along the way such as from environmentalists... By the time the residents of Harish are celebrating the bar mitzvahs of the first kids who will have been born there, only then will Kasif maybe be ready.

The editor then accuses the relevant government ministries of a cavalier attitude towards the haredi community, treating them like an ancient tribe they can send wherever they want like a herd of sheep..

On the one hand, they want the government to make cheap housing available to them, but seem ungrateful when it is - they only want the cheap housing in certain places. On the other hand, if the location is really inappropriate then it is both stupid to invest so much money in a place to which nobody will move but it is also insulting to the target community.

Looking at a map I do not see what the big complaint is about. True, it is not near Road 6, but there are other highways and roads. It is also fairly close to both Arad and Beer Sheva - both large (sort of) and established cities with resources and infrastructure, along with the many other towns in the southern region, such as Ofakim, Netivot and others.. Saying it is isolated, inaccessible and in the middle of nowhere is a bit disingenuous.

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