The establishment of the city of Harish , which is intended to house 150,000 Orthodox Jews and to dominate large areas of Arab towns in Wadi A’arra, is one of the governmental projects that ACAP, alongside the Public Committee for Defending the Housing and the Land, are opposed to. ACAP exposed the project and turned to official parties along by presenting the project to the public and monitoring the updates.
Here we will present key points from the position paper ACAP wrote along with the public committee in Wadi A’arra. This position paper was presented to the national council for planning and building in its meeting on 8.9.2009 regarding this matter, and decision was to postpone the decision regarding the expansion of the planning area of Harish.
Introduction: Under the authority of the special planning committee of Harish, which the Minister of Interior appointed on 9.9.2008, 3,560 Acres were allocated to the development of the town, while today another 4,940 Acres are discussed in the national council for planning and building in order to add it to the original Acres, which would make 8,500 Acres under the authority of the special planning committee.
Expanding the area controlled by the special planning committee is another step towards achieving the ultimate goal to build a city for Orthodox Jews with a population of about 150,000 people. This idea is confirmed by several statements made by different ministries and was discussed in planning committees.
According to a work plan in the prime ministers’ office from 2007, it stated that the city of Harish is the perfect solution for the housing crisis that Orthodox Jews are suffering from, thus, it’s important to plan this city according to the requirements and needs of this society. In the meeting of the Haifa regional planning and housing committee that took place on 27.5.2008, it was recommended that the size of the area for the city would not be determined until the master plan for the city is complete with an area for 21,000 housing units. This was confirmed by the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior in a statement released to the press saying that the planning area for the city of Harish will be expanded from 3,560 Acres to 15,000 Acres.
The position paper that was presented includes 3 chapters: chapter 1 presents a complete planning survey of the status quo in Arab towns in the area; chapter 2 presents a planning survey of the land intended for expanding according to the national and regional plans; chapter 3 presents the implications of such an expansion.
Chapter 1: the proposed expansion for the planning area of Harish: Map 1: shows the location of the land demanded in order to expand the planning area of Harish, and it shows that the suggested area is within the jurisdictional area of the regional council of Menashi. The land also falls in areas that belong to the towns of: Mayser, Um al-Kataf, Mitser, Ma’net and Barkai.
Table 1: specifications of the towns in the area:
| Town’s name | Name of local authority | Municipal status | Population (end of 2008) | Socio-economic status | Year of establishment | Jurisdictional area / town’s area (Acres) |
| Um-alKataf | Menashi | Town within a regional council | 836 | N/A | N/A | 884 |
| Barta’aa | Basmat | Local council | 7,930 | 2 | N/A | 890 |
| Kfar Qaraa’ | Kfar Qaraa’ | Local council | 14,780 | 4 | N/A | 7,810 |
| Mayser | Menashi | Town within a regional council | 1,622 | N/A | N/A | 430 |
| A’ra’ra | A’ra’ra | Local council | 16,390 | 3 | N/a | 9,180 |
| Harish | Katser-Harish | Local council | 3,970 | 5 | 1982 | 9,570 |
| Mitspi Illan | Menashi | Town within a regional council | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Metser | Menashi | Town within a regional council | 400 | N/A | 1953 | 5,840 |
Chapter 2: an overview of the land allocation in the suggested area: According to the Haifa regional plan (TAMAM 6), most of the land demanded to expand the city of Harish are open areas:
| Land purposes (according to TAMAM 6) | Area (Acres) |
| Urban development area | 600 |
| Natural reservation areas on various levels | 7,900 |
| Total (the proposed special planning area) | 8,500 |
From the previous table, we can conclude that about 93% of the proposed planning areas for Harish are open areas.
It should be noted that according to the national plan TAMA 35, it is imperative to keep these lands as open areas in order to preserve the life quality of the people of the surrounding towns. Also, according to the national plan TAMA 22 most of the proposed areas include natural reservations.
Chapter 3: The basic claims regarding the expansion of the special planning area of Harish: 1)
The proposed planning area conflicts with regional and national planning policy: a) The overview survey shows that the proposed area is intended to be an open area and protected on various levels and it is not intended to be a development area. Approving the area would cause serious damage to the legal plans that were approved that reflects the future planning policy of the state of Israel.
b) The proposed planning area threatens the role of the urban fabric according to the national plan TAMA 35, which affirms the need to keep the balance between development areas and open areas, which reflects in putting restrains on adding development areas to the list. The development areas used are 28% of the urban fabric; future development areas in this fabric are 43%.
In case of approval on the expansion of the planning area for Harish, there would be a steep increase in the percentage of the land intended for development and it would become 58% of the area of the urban fabric, which would cause a breach in the balance between development areas and open areas. c) Approving the expansion would cause tremendous pressure on the natural and ecological resources in the area, especially when we are talking about adding 150,000 people to the area.
2)
Approving the special planning area ignores all existing ecological concepts: a) The special planning area ignores existing ecological values in the area. These values are expressed through legal plans and also by values accepted by the people of the surrounding towns which use these areas for agriculture, entertainment and spending their free time.
b) Adjacent to the proposed planning area is an unrecognized village called Dar Alhanon. On 2.9.2003 a master plan presented by the people of the village was discussed in the regional planning committee; the committee rejected the plan claiming that the master plan is not with accordance with the national plan TAMA 31 that classifies this land as an open rural area. In addition, it is also not with accordance with the national plan TAMAM 6 that classifies this land as an agricultural land surrounded by forests.
This means that ecological values had previously prevented the planning committees from recognizing an existing village with people who are living on their private land even before the establishment of the state of Israel. The proposition to expand the planning area of Harish completely ignores these values and essentially damages the “professional” decision made by the same committee in the past. 3) The approval of a special planning area in order to establish a city for Orthodox Jews would lead to negative social implications. Especially in an area populated by various types of Arab and Jewish populations. There are special social needs for the Orthodox Jews and this would affect the nature of the daily life in the area for the population in that area. And this would lead to struggles that will affect the mood in the area.
These claims are based on an extensive and professional study of the area on many aspects: planning , ecological and social-wise.
We can summarize and say that the establishment of the city of Harish for the Orthodox Jews in the year 2009 is like approving establishing separate areas in the 21
st century in a democratic country. The dimensions of the proposed city do not allow the establishment of a private community town. However, we are talking about a strange city, which is forced on the area but separate at the same time: socially, economically and naturally within an area populated by various population groups.
To summarize this position paper affirms two key points:
1) The establishment of the city Harish for the Orthodox Jews with a population of 150,000 people would cause tremendous pressure on the existing natural and ecological resources in the area. It will fatally affect the natural development of the existing towns in the area. In our opinion, the decision to establish the city of Harish is a decision made without objective motives behind it and without an extensive and professional study of the facts or the planning state of the area. The national council for planning and building should require that a complete study should be made about the area’s capability to absorb such a plan and the implications of establishing a city in the proposed size.
2) If the various institutions decide to ignore the ecological and social values mentioned in this paper and to establish the city, it must be made sure through the decisions of these planning institutes that any city that would be established in area would be open to all people and groups who are interested in living in it, without differentiation based on ethnicity, religion or socially.