Message from Mayor Ron Nachman
The Building Freeze
| | Dear Rabbi Saul,
On Friday afternoon at 3:00pm, just one hour before Shabbat, I received a call from an Israeli Defense Forces officer. He came to bring me the building freeze orders.
| | What had been presented as a government statement, to be implemented at a reasonable pace and with sufficient warning, was all of a sudden propelled into immediate and heavy handed motion.
Young families, who took out mortgages to buy homes that were under construction will no longer be able to afford their payments, now that the entry date to their new homes has been pushed off by 10 months.
The Netzarim community, which resides in Ariel since the 2005 Disengagement from Gush Katif, has finally received the necessary licenses and permits to begin building a neighborhood of 100 homes in Ariel. The building freeze stops them in their tracks, leaving them in their trailers and shipping containers for yet another 10 months.
Businesses that chose to invest in the region and build their factories in Ariel's Industrial Zone are set back 10 months, paralyzing their marketing programs and threatening them with economic collapse.
Unfortunately, the aggressive implementation of the freeze has grossly oversimplified a complex issue. Even the environment is at risk, with concerns that Ariel's connection to the Dan Region Wastewater Treatment Plant may be postponed, or that its budget may be routed elsewhere for lack of progress on the long awaited project.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has succumbed to extreme and relentless pressure from the Obama administration and from Europe. I met with him last week, along with other representatives from Samaria and Judea. He explained that the 10 month building freeze throughout Judea and Samaria is a gesture to the international community, indicating that Israel is willing to take practical steps towards a so-called "peace" arrangement. Though he has not personally changed his belief system, he has initiated an unbearable situation with far reaching implications.
The City of Ariel, along with 14 other cities and regional councils, has issued a claim against the government's recent actions. The Supreme Court responded that it will address the case in the coming days.
We have been frozen in the past, but we have always persevered.
In 1980 Prime Minister begin froze us for 3 months, but that didn't stop us.
In 1992 Prime Minister Rabin froze us for 4 years. There have been many long term affects to that policy, but Ariel remains an undeniable reality.
Notwithstanding our strength, we need to understand the threatening nature of this building freeze. It means that we can't absorb new immigrants, because we can't build new homes. It means that we can't attract young couples to Ariel, resulting in kindergartens closing and schools shrinking. It means that people don't know what to expect from day to day, or what their community will look like a year from now.
No less harmful than the freeze are the government's budget cutbacks. Funding that went to Ariel as a national developmental priority has been discontinued. The repercussions are felt in the city's Department of Education, Social Services, Youth Department and in private households. Families who receive a 90% discount on childcare and nursery school are now required to pay 100% of the required tuition. No grants are given for young families to purchase homes in Ariel. No incentives are given to educators to come and teach in Ariel.
Peace will not emerge from this building freeze, just as no good has emerged from the previous so-called peace initiatives, beginning with the 1993 Oslo Accords. This building freeze is yet another Israeli gesture towards an unwilling group of Palestinians. In the meantime, it causes unnecessary hardships to the people of Samaria and Judea, and it serves to delegitimize future attempts at creating some form of peace in the eyes of the Israeli people.
What will emerge is a strong Ariel. Without a strong Samaria the State of Israel cannot survive. Without a strong Ariel there would be no Samaria. The geo-political situation in Israel continues to become increasingly more obvious to Israelis and even to the Western World. The City of Ariel will continue to provide jobs for our Arab neighbors. We will continue to provide them with water and electricity. We will continue to contribute to a meaningful and lasting peace in the region. After all is said and done it is our commitment to progress and to peace that will prevail.
Sincerely,
Ron Nachman
Mayor of Ariel
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This email was sent to gold7910@bellsouth.net by mayornachman@friendsofariel.org.
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