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24 Shevat 5759 - Feb. 10, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Ramot's Residents Irate Over Permit to Build Cinemas in Their Neighborhood

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Residents of Jerusalem's Ramot neighborhood, along with chareidi representatives in Jerusalem's Municipality, are irate over a permit granted by the Jerusalem Regional Building and Planning Committee to build two cinemas within their mainly religious and chareidi neighborhood.

This decision contradicts that of the Local Building and Planning Committee, headed by Rabbi Uri Lapolianski, which approved a construction project a number of months ago with the reservation that the area be used to build "educational and cultural" institutions, and not for cinemas. By making such reservations, the members of the committee hoped to ensure the future building of educational institutions, instead of the cinemas the promoters of the project wanted.

For the past ten years, chareidi residents of Ramot have been trying to prevent the building of the cinemas. The entire project will include residential homes for the elderly, offices and places of commerce. According to the plan, the slated center will be annexed to the existing commercial one by a broad bridge, on which two levels for "commerce and entertainment" will be built.

Despite the decision of the local committee not to approve the cinemas, but rather to build educational and cultural institutions, members of the regional committee decided to approve the project, the last word on the decision being "cinema."

Reports about the approval of the project in this format have sparked anger amid the chareidi residents of Ramot and the chareidi representatives in the municipality. Rabbi Uri Lapolianski, chairman of the local committee who made extensive efforts to change the commercial center, told Yated Ne'eman that Ramot residents will soon file thousands of petitions opposing the project, in an attempt to void the license granted for building cinemas in the planned commercial center.


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