Petition in Zichron Yaacov: The ultra-Orthodox receive a real estate "gift" of NIS 400 million

Allegations of corruption on a huge scale: The association that filed the petition against the local council and the Ministry of the Interior claims that there is a suspicion of a plot between council members and an ultra-Orthodox association, in which land given to the association for public use will be sold with full money to build apartments.

Yoav Itiel

05/02/2022

Saturday, 05 February 2022, 20:01 Updated: 20:44

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In the video: a plot to give a gift of NIS 400 million to the ultra-Orthodox in Zichron Yaacov (credit: Yoav Itiel)

An administrative petition was filed in the Haifa District Court (Friday) against the Zichron Yaacov local council, alleging a "conspiracy to provide free public land for the benefit of an ultra-Orthodox association and the illegally enriching of its managers at public expense, through a round real estate project." Hundreds of millions of shekels. "

According to the petitioners, this is in fact a" gift "in the amount of at least NIS 400 million. "They also say that this is a conduct that is contrary to the law and the procedures of the council itself. Along with the petition, they are seeking a restraining order that will freeze the situation until their claims are clarified.

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"We tried to contact the police several times, and nothing progressed," explains Moshik Lerner, who describes himself as a "pedagogical entrepreneur," who is one of the people behind the petition.

Lerner is one of the founders of the Keshet Democratic School and formerly also its principal.

In the background of the petition, there has been a struggle for years to preserve the character and character of the Zichron Yaacov colony, a secular community where both ultra-Orthodox and religious people live, and whose population is constantly afraid of being eroded by the status quo.

Lerner complained on Friday about posters of ultra-Orthodox people hanging on a fence in front of the lot next to his house in the Yaakov neighborhood, not far from one of the ultra-Orthodox complexes in the community.

"Most of the people who called me say it's related, so it's probably related," he said.

A struggle has been going on for years over the character and character of Zichron Yaacov (Photo: Yoav Itiel)

The petitioners also did not find cooperation in the plenum of the local council.

On Tuesday last week, Councilor Meir Liani (who is not among the petitioners) put forward a proposal to cancel the previous proceedings and carry out a study and re-examination for the purpose of examining the correctness of the allocations or re-approving them.

But rarely have members of the opposition and the coalition all but Liani voted to reject his proposal.

This is despite the fact that a month earlier the council had unanimously authorized him to collect the data.

"I am not against the ultra-Orthodox. I was interested in what is happening with the allocations in general," Liani wants to emphasize.

"If you want to hide something then there is probably something to hide. The great shame is that they did not even allow it to be brought up for discussion. For me it is a moral bankruptcy. Everyone is squinting at the ultra-Orthodox."

In addition to the local council, the head of the council and its legal counsel, the petition filed through attorneys Lior Datz and Yossi Or-HaCohen is also directed against the Minister of the Interior and the Haifa District Commissioner of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as against the Zichron Yaacov Torah Education Center. The petition was filed by the "Guardians of the Colony - Our Zichron Yaacov" association, a registered association of the residents of the settlement, whose other goals include "struggle against illegal moves and construction offenses that have allegedly been carried out by MLAT for years."

Clashes between religious and secular people in Zichron Yaacov (Photo: official website, -)

The letter of petition indicates a chain of events that began in 2003, during the time of the previous head of the council.

It was claimed that the council first handed over the land to the ultra-Orthodox association, and only years later did it begin formal allocation procedures that have not been completed to date, while the association is already sitting on the land.

They emphasize that in their view, the purpose of illegally allocating land is not to provide land to the ultra-Orthodox association for the benefit of its educational institutions, but to disguise the real goal - to make the land owned by the association, designed to meet the educational institutions' needs. Personally.

They say that this is a plot planned in advance according to an "orderly phase theory" in which senior council members allegedly joined the ultra-Orthodox association, in order to carry out the plot to get rich at public expense, which begins with handing over public land to an ultra-Orthodox association. To sell land owned by it for the purpose of educational institutions according to the city building plan (master plan) and according to the association's own bylaws, intended for the benefit of its institutions, claiming that they are no longer needed as land for educational institutions but as tradable land for residential construction, all for enrichment.

According to the petitioners, the association has already built residential apartments under the guise of "faculty residences" and sells them to the ultra-Orthodox public, the association's leaders and even the free market, even though the land is for public use to build the association's institutions.

Petitioners claim that they did so as an "experimental balloon" before the implementation of a large plan to change the designation of the areas owned by the association to the extent of 19 dunams in favor of a large-scale real estate project in the making.

According to the petitioners, this "method" works while the council allocates land to the association free of charge and exempt from tender for its needs in one neighborhood in the locality, and in retrospect the association turns to the authorities, claims that it has no need for land allocated to another neighborhood.

They claim that according to this "method", in the last and present phase at this time, the association has seen that Tov and the authorities are even cooperating with it, and it decides to move to the final stage by submitting a plan to approve the planning institutions. In the free market at the expense of the public, on the order of 276 housing units.

"The council is leading the program halt."

Council Chairman Ziv Desha (Photo: Walla !, Yoav Itiel)

"The Interior Ministry's answer will be given in court," the interior minister and district commissioner said.

Council Chairman Ziv Desha posted on his Facebook page on Saturday evening that "the council is leading on a variety of levels the halting of the plan that poses a threat to the colony," and that he has been updated on the petition filed by the "Guardians of the Colony" association, but refrained from commenting on the body.

"The petition has not yet been received at the council offices," he said.

Rabbi Rafi Manat, a spokesman for the ultra-Orthodox community in Zichron Yaacov and one of the heads of the association's educational institutions, dismissed the petitioners' claims and said, "We will calmly consider the petition and respond."

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