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2 Shevat 5765 - January 12, 2005 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Renewed Attempt to Block Chareidi Land Auction Winners in Beit Shemesh

By Betzalel Kahn

The Ministry of Construction and Housing, through the State Attorney's Office, submitted an appeal against a Jerusalem District Court decision to require the state to uphold agreements signed with the chareidi purchasers of building lots in the Shachar neighborhood in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel. The decision and the events leading up to it were reported in Yated of parshas Mikeitz this year.

Several weeks ago the court sided with the petitioners, a group of chareidim who won lots in a land auction about four years ago. The judge found that the State cannot overlook its obligation to uphold a signed agreement and therefore must plan future work on the project, including developing the infrastructure, within a short period of time.

The appellants, represented by Attorney Mordechai Green and Yehoshua Naner, based their case on comprehensive investigative work in the field carried out by one of the auction winners, R' Moshe Brown. The data he collected demonstrated the buying power of the chareidi public in Beit Shemesh building projects and the costs of carrying out the auction.

The appeal filed by the Housing Ministry claims that although the State may not absolve itself of binding agreements, in this case executing the tender would cause the State great financial loss. The 12-page appeal repeats numerous facts that the district court did not accept or were never proven, and statements that were not confirmed. In effect the State Attorney and the Housing Ministry do not contend with the previous court decision but rather raise new arguments, ignoring the previous ruling.

Attorney Mordechai Green was surprised that an appeal was filed at all after the decision handed down clearly determined that the original contracts must be honored. The appeal may have been filed merely to delay the outlays for further development work on the neighborhood.

One of the State's central arguments in the appeal is the inability to sell the entire project to the chareidi public and that the general public will refuse to purchase apartments in a chareidi neighborhood. Therefore they want to designate it a secular neighborhood. Furthermore, says the appeal, the City of Beit Shemesh announced that it would hinder development and construction at the site if it is designated for chareidim.

The ruling handed down and other precedents preclude allotting neighborhoods for the secular population alone, to the extent of discriminating against chareidim and denying them the right to move in. However it is permitted to designate land for a particular segment of the population as long as nobody, regardless of background, is prevented from purchasing a lot. That is, steps may be taken to make a particular neighborhood attractive and appropriate to specific groups, but nonetheless no groups may be blocked from buying there.

Local real estate figures said that as a result of these precedents, even if the appeal is accepted and the authorities decide to designate the new neighborhood for the general population, the chareidi public will still come en masse to purchase apartments since Ramat Beit Shemesh is now in high demand among young couples and large families.

 

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