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.
