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NEWS
Modi'in Illit Declared a City
By A. Cohen
Modi'in Illit, considered the third largest Torah center in
the country, was officially designated a city after Interior
Minister Meir Shetreet approved a recommendation by Central
Command Head Gen. Gadi Shamni to make the local council into
a municipality. Rabbi Yaakov Guterman, until recently head of
the local council and now mayor, noted Modi'in Illit had
already been functioning as a city before the change. "The
city's merit lies in the talmidei chachomim and the
Torah and Chassidus institutions that grace it," he said.
The decision followed years of deliberations by a special
committee and in-depth inquiries into Modi'in Illit's
development and management.
The recent move follows a similar decision by Defense
Minister Ehud Barak to declare Modi'in Illit a city. In a
written reply to a question by Minister Shetreet, Barak wrote
that he supports declaring it a city. The message was clear:
all of the recent talk about a construction freeze does not
apply to Modi'in Illit.
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