the planned city of Kasif, which is meant to be designated for the Haredi community and will be as large as having a population of 100,000 people living there eventually, was recently approved.

Kasif has been going through various stages of approval, but now the Ministry of Housing committee decided to reject the claims of the environmentalists protesting the plans and approve them, and to recommend to the planing and construction committee to approve the plans.
source: Ynet

Despite a city being planned for Haredi construction, some people in the Haredi community are still upset by it.

MK Yaakov Asher (UTJ), in an interview to Globes, explains why he opposes the plan and is unimpressed with the approval.

Basically he is upset that the government is throwing the Haredim to an area nobody wants. he also says the expenses will be too high to build such a city, and it is a better idea to expand an existing city with new neighborhoods for the Haredi community. Arnona from residential property isn't enough to sustain a city, and if no industrial zones are planned, as they are not, it will just be a bedroom community or a satellite town, and will constantly require government subsidies to stay afloat, and will never be self-sustainable.

my thoughts:
1. Asher is basically acknowledging that the Haredi community cannot sustain itself. They need to connect to the general society in general cities, even with separate neighborhoods, in order to survive/thrive. They cannot do it on their own.
2. Asher wants lots of Haredi housing for cheap, but he does not want it in areas where the property is cheap. he wants it in Jerusalem or other more central areas. Well, those areas have expensive land, which means the housing costs are more expensive. Building in cheaper areas will help keep the housing prices down for the community that needs cheap housing.
3. Ariel Attias, when he was Minister of Housing, was the one who started the process for Kasif. Attias was famous for saying that he believes that Haredi community has to live separate from the general community and mixing the two does not work - it creates tension and conflict. Asher does not like that idea and prefers neighborhoods be built for Haredim in general cities. Asher really does want separation between Haredim and non-haredim. he will not advocate for mixed neighborhoods, and he will not defend the rights, or promote it as an ideal, of non-haredim to live in Haredi neighborhoods. Asher wants separation, just not so much that would require the Haredi community to be self-sufficient.
4. the mayor of Arad, also interviewed in the article, says she is happy with the plans of the nearby town for Haredim. It seems a bit selfish, as she says it means more business in Arad, as the residents of Kasif will require the use of much of Arad's services. She does not want them living in Arad, as she is concerned of what she calls "the Bet Shemesh effect" where so many Haredim will move in they will eventually take over the town and change its style. Basically, she wants the Haredim close enough to give Arad their business, but far enough that they will not change Arad in any way.

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.

I think the best possible situation is one that includes no ghettos - everybody lives together. mixed cities. Diversity. Everyone should learn to respect each other and learn to live with each other.

Some say it is not possible - there is just too much of a culture clash - haredim need to live only among their own, secular on their own (DL seem to be able to live with secular and vice versa, and maybe even with haredim but only in small numbers), Arabs on their own, etc. Even within Haredi communities, different types of Haredim often have trouble living too close to each other. It prevents the inevitable culture clash. Just look at Bet Shemesh where the culture clashes have become like a national pastime. Some cities have even had campaigns where they use slogans like "we are not Bet Shemesh", "we don't want to become the next Bet Shemesh".....

The thing is, nowadays putting people together does not work - people fight when Haredim move into an existing city or neighborhood and get upset that they are "taking over", and people get upset when an isolated city or neighborhood is being built for haredim. As long as planning of such cities and neighborhoods is done properly, or at least in a way that will not harm nearby communities, and it is not done in a discriminatory way - communities are also planned/built to alleviate the shortages in other communities as well - there should not be any opposition to a standalone Haredi community.

The way it works now is that people oppose letting Haredim move (en masse) into existing cities and neighborhoods, and people oppose Haredim having cities or towns built just for them. So where are Haredim supposed to live?

I write this because this morning the Cabinet held its weekly session in Sde Boker to mark the yahrtzeit of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister and a founding father of the State. During the session the Cabinet voted in favor of building a number of new cities n the southern pat of Israel. One of those cities is Kasif - a city designated for Haredim. The vote passed with 8 in favor and 5 against.

Kasif is being planned to bear some 50,000 Haredi residents - 10,000 homes, in the first stages of the town.

In addition to Kasif, 2 other towns were also approved - Shizaf and Chiran (Chiran for the dati community and Shizaf for the secular).

The approval comes automatically with opposition. A group of mayors and regional heads from the area filed opposition to having such massive absorption of Haredim in the area - their demand for a certain lifestyle will become a burden on the existing society and will deter others from coming to the area. Environmentalist groups oppose it sayign thaat there is no need to establish a new town - instead existing towns, such as Arad, Yerucham, Ofakim, Dimona and Netivot, should be grown, especially as they have not reached their expansion limits.
(source: Globes)

Any valid claims should definitely be dealt with. Proper infrastructure in these new towns should be planned and built. Plans should include adequate schools, shuls, mikvas, matnas and sports facilities, along with parks, business and commercial centers, plans for bringing places of employment, etc. It should be planned properly and they should not be left to become a burden on other nearby towns. If the planning will be done properly, there should be no reason for opposition to such a community.

The truth is also that these towns have already been approved already, each of them years ago at different times. I am not sure what was done today different than previous decisions - maybe now they will actually get started on them?



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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

In a move that is pretty similar to what was described and discussed as a viable option in the comments earlier today, the Council for National Construction today voted and approved the establishment of a new city in the Negev, near Arad.

The city, Kasif, will be designed for Haredim, and the construction will be appropriate for this community. They approved 10,000 units for a minimum of 50,000 people. They also approved a higher percentage of public buildings, as is needed in haredi communities, for more shuls and schools than the average city has.

The Nature Protection Society had voted against and says it is a bad idea as it will destroy the local environment, it uses up valuable free and open space, and many towns in other parts of the Negev are far from completely maximized, and they should be filled up before building new cities.

10,000 housing units is a large amount and can make a serious dent in the housing crisis.