Following a legal battle stretching nearly five years, the
High Court determined that the decision by the Housing
Ministry's Tenders Committee to annul the tender for build
it yourself plots of land in the Shachar neighborhood located
in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel merely because the winners were
chareidi, was illegal. The High Court ordered the State to
set a timetable to allow the winners to realize their signed
purchase agreements by the end of 2006, and thereby rejected
the State's appeal of the previous decision by the district
court. The case was discussed in detail about a year ago in
the issue of parshas Mikeitz 5765 of Yated.
The development is viewed as a significant legal achievement,
since the City of Beit Shemesh had begun to advance a
proposal to alter the building plans for the nearby
residential neighborhood in a manner that would make them
unsuitable for the chareidi sector.
The chareidi tender winners, who will now be able to realize
their purchase options and move into their new homes within
three years, plan to sue the State for monetary damages they
suffered as a result of the illegal annulment of the
tender.
Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel, slated to include over 2,000
housing units, was originally intended for the general
population. One hundred and fifty-eight offers, including
dozens by chareidi families, were submitted when a tender was
issued for 103 build-it-yourself land units located at the
edge of the neighborhood. The majority of these chareidi
families won lots, taking housing officials and interested
parties — who had intended to market the neighborhood
to secular buyers in order to create a buffer zone between
the chareidi neighborhoods and neighborhoods slated for
future construction — completely by surprise. They
cancelled the contracts.
A decision by the Attorney General at the time to support
this cancellation, infuriated the chareidi tender winners,
who then decided to petition the Jerusalem District Court for
Administrative Matters, claiming that the retroactive
annulment of the tender and the signed contracts was clearly
illegal, unjust, based on ulterior motives and in
contradiction to the principle of equality.
At first the Court rejected the petition, saying that the
annulment was actually legal, and arguing that the remaining
lots would not be saleable in the foreseeable future since "a
neighborhood whose residents are few and whose development
continues over an extended period of time deters the public
from leasing the housing units."
The petitioners then took the case to the High Court. A bench
headed by Court President Justice Aharon Barak determined
that the annulment of the contracts was indeed illegal and
returned the case to the District Court for further
deliberation.
Following months of hearings, Judge Yehudit Tzur handed down
a ruling one year ago, concurring that the tender was
annulled illegally and that the State must set a timetable to
execute the original contracts.
Her ruling included a decision in principle upholding the
right of a chareidi individual to purchase an apartment in a
neighborhood designated for the general population even
though, on the other hand, a chareidi community does retain
the right "to preserve its culture and protect it from
outsiders who do not want to integrate themselves."
Following this decision the State filed a High Court appeal
claiming that although the State cannot shun its obligation
to fulfill valid contractual agreements, carrying out the
tender would cause the national treasury enormous monetary
damage.
In recent High Court hearings presided over by Justices
Edmond Levy, Edna Arbel and Salim Joubran the justices
recommended that the State's council withdraw its appeal.
When the State refused, the justices instructed the sides to
reach a compromise solution, which carries the power of a
court ruling. The compromise declared the Housing Ministry's
appeal null and void, but one modification was added: the
State has until the end of 2006 to carry out the purchase
agreements.
Jurists say that based on certain hints during the course of
the court proceedings, the tender winners think they can
successfully sue the State for damages (mortgage payments,
rent payments, etc.) accrued since the tender submission date
over five years ago.
Now, following the High Court's decision in the precedent-
setting case, the way has been paved for the construction of
a chareidi neighborhood consisting of thousands of units in
Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel, and numerous other chareidi
families are also expected to purchase homes in the adjacent
area slated for future construction.
