Rishon Lezion opens modern cemetery
Residents to have 'right of choice' between religious, secular burials
Rishon Lezion Mayor Meir Nitzan is determined not to let monopolies take control, even in the burial sector.
In a challenge to the Burial Society, Nitzan has allowed for the establishment of a company that will build an alternative cemetery.
The Ahzakot company, which has initiated the project, has renovated private property, and is preparing to build 2,800 graves.
The agreement between the company and the Rishon Lezion Municipality is based on allowing religious burial according to Jewish tradition to take place, as well as secular burials.
The condition set by Rishon Lezion's mayor to Ahazakot is that a majority of the burial places be reserved for the city's residents.
The new cemetery will be built next to the city's military cemetery. It will be a modern cemetery, and will allow a two-floor burial option for couples, burial in a coffin, and burial in a wall.
'Additional burial plots'
Mayor Nitzan said on Tuesday: "This is a real need of the city's residents, additional burial plots. It is the basic right of a person to choose."
Sources at the Rishon Lezion Municipality say that they have repeatedly heard complaints by residents in the city on the poor and inconsiderate treatment on the part of the Burial Society, who is not always happy to meet their requests during difficult moments, and deal with the burial of a family member.
The municipality hopes that the opening of a new cemetery will improve the service received by the city's residents.
