East Jerusalem enclave to get $3 m. Jewish ritual bath
Mikveh would service tiny neighborhood of 100 Israeli families on Mount of Olives; city dismisses accusations of overspending
Jerusalem City Hall approved the allocation of NIS 11 million ($2.9 million) for a Jewish ritual bath half the size of an Olympic swimming pool in an Israeli enclave on the Mount of Olives.
The Ma’ale Hazeitim neighborhood — an Israeli settlement in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood of East Jerusalem — is home to roughly 100 Jewish families, but will be getting its third mikveh, this one about 400 square meters, and one of the most expensive in the city, Haaretz reported Monday.
The municipality said the sum wasn’t excessive, pointing out that another mikveh was recently constructed in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev — home to 40,000 residents — for NIS 10.3 million ($2.7 million).
Meretz party city councilwoman Laura Wharton charged that the construction was outrageous. “While there’s underfunding of institutions of education, holes in roads and cuts in municipal services, it’s impossible to justify a project of this type,” she told the newspaper. “Apparently there’s no limit to what the mayor is prepared to do in order to find favor with his friends on the radical right.”
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Arieh King, a city councilman from the United Jerusalem party who lives in the neighborhood where the mikveh is slated to be built, dismissed criticism of the plan. He contended that the large ritual bath would not only serve the 100 families living in Ma’ale Hazeitim, but also the nearby Jewish enclaves in Kidmat Zion and the City of David.
The Jerusalem municipality said in a statement that the claims of overspending were incorrect.
“The price of every ritual bath is determined according to its size and in accordance with the results of an organized tender,” it said. “The cost of the Ma’ale Hazeitim mivkeh is a standard price for a mikveh and isn’t materially different from other ritual baths, aside from the additional costs, which aren’t significant, on account of the security elements necessary in light of its location.”