“When you compare this building to other buildings, the gap is huge,” said Grunis.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBNew Lod District Court 370(photo credit: Yonah Jeremy Bob)
The courts formally inaugurated the opening of the new Lod District Court for the central region on Tuesday.Attending the ceremony were Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, State Comptroller Yosef Shapira, many of the country’s leading judges, and other high-ranking officials in the court system.“When you compare this building to other buildings, the gap is huge,” said Grunis.He added that a new courthouse had recently gone up in Kiryat Shmona and that he hoped to see new buildings constructed soon in Ashkelon and Ashdod.He encouraged the judges “to continue to do great work.”Neeman said that the new courthouse should aid in the government’s push to revitalize Lod and restore it to its former greatness – a reference to a passage in the Babylonian Talmud that suggests great judges can be found in Lod.The new court in Lod formally replaces the temporary one in Petah Tikva that had served as the seat of the central region’s courts for five years before the Lod building was complete.Both the Petah Tikva site and the now-permanent Lod site were part of an effort to make the central region a separate court district from the Tel Aviv District, of which the central region was a part until recently.Former justice minister Daniel Friedmann signed the order five years ago to establish the new court in Lod.The building opened its courtrooms to addressing legal disputes on September 2, and there was a brief ribboncutting ceremony that day, but its formal opening was celebrated Tuesday.The ceremony also included a musical performance by eight-to-13-year-old children from a Lod school, which represented the city’s multiracial spectrum.While there are numerous magistrate-level courts around the country, the new court is one of only six district-level courts throughout the nation.The move to Lod was also part of a broader government program to try to rebuild and pour resources into the city.According to media sources, the building has cost the state NIS 75.5 million so far, with at least another NIS 7m. already expected to be spent over the next 20 years. It covers 10,000 square meters and rises to a height of four stories.Reports also said the courthouse includes 24 courtrooms.Although that sounds like a lot, the courthouse will be crowded, as it must house 29 judges, though some of them sometimes sit on three-judge panels.
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