At the
same time a variety of environmental organizations may rightly fear
that a new city - with planned low-slung residences, educational
centers, commercial zones and employment complexes - would despoil the
region's pristine desert vistas and impede the movement of wildlife.
Green activists want the haredim absorbed in existing Negev cities -
the very ones which vehemently rebuff the notion of a large haredi
influx.
The haredim thus are turned into veritable footballs, kicked
back and forth by cities which don't want them and environmentalists
who fear their impact.
The bottom line is a situation in which a very large segment of
our society is stigmatized as unwanted anywhere, while there physically
remains no room for it in jam-packed concentrations like Bnei Brak and
Jerusalem.
NO GROUP in this country should be thus treated, although no
small proportion of the blame can be ascribed to often shameless haredi
abuses of the system at the expense of taxpayers. Organized
mass-draft-dodging and inordinate reliance on handouts from the public
coffers fuel resentment. Failure to integrate into originally secular
surroundings (with the happy exception of central Tel Aviv) and
sometimes aggressive attempts to impose restrictions on neighbors breed
antagonism.
Thus cities which cry out for a transfusion of new residents -
such as Lod - worry that planned haredi neighborhoods will only make
these already poor municipalities much poorer and inflict upon them
oversized families who consume services but don't contribute
sufficiently in revenue.
Justifiably or not, haredim have earned the reputation of
shying away from gainful employment. If this is untrue, then there is a
good deal of income undeclared in order to avoid taxation and/or
removal from welfare rolls.
About 80 percent of Kasif's homes will be subsidized, owing to
the presumed financial hardship of most prospective dwellers. Housing
subsidies are not unusual in Israel, especially in remote locales, but
this again is sure to generate ill will.
All that said, Kasif - first decided upon in 2007 - is
indispensable. There are an estimated 700,000 haredim in the country
and a shortage of 100,000 housing units. All current plans - including
the new town of Harish east of Hadera - will only offer some 30,000
units.
Israelis cannot willfully wish their haredi compatriots away,
no matter how aggrieved they feel. We mustn't lose sight of genuine
need and plight.