Ajami residents: Stop religious project

Residents petition High Court against decision to allow Bemuna company to build 20 apartments in Jaffa neighborhood for national-religious public only. Association for Civil Rights: This is bad news for entire society

Mark Schon, Calcalist |Published: 03.07.10 , 15:48

Ajami residents filed a petition with the High Court of Justice on Thursday against a decision to approve construction for religious people only in the Jaffa neighborhood.

The court has already issued an interim order in the past, preventing the transfer of the plot to the Bemuna company, which won an Israel Land Administration (ILA) bid.

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Tel Aviv District Court Judge Yehooda Zaft last week rejected claims made by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, ruling that the bid won by the Bemuna company, for the construction of 20 apartments for the national-religious public only, cannot be canceled.

The residents are appealing the fact that the judge focused on the tender issue, ignoring the residents' inequality claim.

In the petition, the Association for Civil Rights lams the general phenomenon of building for specific sectors. "There has been a growing trend of commercial companies and private entrepreneurs taking part in ILA bids for projects marketed to a specific public only," the appeal read.

"There are those who market to high-tech people only, there are those who market to the national-religious public only, and there are those who market to former military pilots only. The projects are based on the desire to live in a closed community and the alleged attractiveness of a homogenous residential compound, where certain populations don’t have the option to live."

Won’t settle for 20 apartments

As for the construction in the Jaffa neighborhood, the Association wrote that "this is not about a group of good friends seeking to live together, but people gathered by a commercial company due to the fact that they share the group's religious-political worldview or the desire to live in a closed residential complex. These are not interests that deserve protection or should be favored over the right for equality."

The Association slammed the claim that the projects includes only 20 apartments, saying that "the group's organizers have no plans to settle for this plot and are declaring that they intend on establishing a big neighborhood for the national religious public."

Attorney Gil Gan-Mor, who filed the petition, said that "the District Court basically permitted the construction of closed residential complexes by private entrepreneurs. This is bad news for the entire society, and particularly for groups in the population which are usually discriminated against."