MK Yariv Levine (Likud), Chairman of the Knesset House Committee, has directed a Knesset query to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, asking why families in Kiryat Arba face housing discrimination. “The housing shortage in Kiryat Arba is constantly getting worse,” Levine said from the Knesset floor. “I have been informed that parents in Kiryat Arba built a hut [in Mitzpeh Avichai, three weeks ago] to provide a roof for their three-year-old daughter – and the authorities demolished it. I would like to ask the Defense Minister these questions: 1. Why are the residents’ basic rights to live in the town in which they were born and raised not being respected? 2. Why are the people of Kiryat Arba being discriminated against in comparison with those of other towns in Israel? 3. Why does the Defense Ministry not allow the necessary housing to be built immediately?” The background of the query is a growing amount of discontent in Kiryat Arba, and outside of it, with the city’s housing crisis. Some say the problem has been 20 years in the making. Kiryat Arba was founded in 1968 just outside Hevron, as a “compromise” between the government and a group of pioneers who wished to start a Jewish presence in the City of the Patriarchs. Its population currently stands at 7,300 (300 more than three years ago), but is unable to grow substantially because of the housing crunch. Likud Activist: No More Choking! Likud party activist Gideon Ariel wrote recently to several Likud MKs about the fact that Kiryat Arba is not allowed to expand into areas officially designated for expansion, and the resultant harm caused to young couples who wish to live there. “The choking of Kiryat Arba must come to an end,” wrote Ariel, a resident of Maaleh Adumim. “Free up the ring of suffocation around the city, and allow its residents to lead normal lives – for otherwise, this precious town will become an enclave that could be destroyed in a week, just as occurred in Gush Katif to our great sorrow.” “It’s been 20 years that new construction has not been allowed in Kiryat Arba,” Ariel continued, “and the situation is totally abnormal. The only ray of light is that some pioneering young couples have taken the first step, trying to settle the hills of Kiryat Arba. So please – grant them construction permits. We need a public struggle that will strengthen their spirit and solve this acute problem.” Click here to see before-and-after photos of the attempt to expand Kiryat Arba Young Mother: Use Your Strengths! At least one family and several bachelors have taken up residence on a hill called Givah 18, which is located within the municipal borders of Kiryat Arba. The young mother living there, named Zeviyah, wrote to the MKs as well: “I’m just a young mother and a student, but I know that everyone has his own strengths! I ask you to you use yours, prevent future demolitions, and say yes! to normal life and housing for the young generation in the hills of Kiryat Arba.” Mattot Arim: Just Like When New Jerusalem was First Built Grass-roots organization Mattot Arim (Cities of Israel), headquartered in Rehovot, has taken up the cause as well. “Just like when the first pioneers decided to leave the walls of Jerusalem over 100 years ago and begin to build outside, this is what is needed in Kiryat Arba as well,” the organization writes. “One woman told us that though she had been born and raised in Kiryat Arba, she had never set foot outside the fence that surrounds its built-up areas. One day she decided to step outside and take a look – and now she and her family are trying to live there.” “The situation is absurd,” Mattot Arim quotes a resident as saying. “In some neighborhoods there are caravans that are just a few feet away from each other; you can hear the neighbors not only when they yell, but even when they just talk! We have large land reserves in the city’s zoning plan, but no one is allowed to build. No new lots have been distributed for 20 years, and the apartment prices are sky-high. It has to change!” MK Levine can be faxed at 02-6496600 (from abroad: +9722-6496600), and emailed at <ylevin@knesset.gov.il>. Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s fax is 02-6496117 and email is ehudb@knesset.gov.il .
