Modi’in nixes policy keeping nonresidents out of city park

Several months after closing a large park in the city over the holiday to keep out nonresidents, the city of Modi’in said it would rescind the policy, which drew fire from civil rights activists and neighbors who said it stood on dubious legal ground.

The Modi’in-Macabim-Reut municipality announced Thursday that it would allow non-residents into the large Anabe Park over Passover.

The overturned ruling had kept out nonresidents during the summer months and on holidays.

Although overcrowding was originally offered as the official rationale for restricting entrance to the park, some suspected that the municipality’s true intention was to keep out ultra-Orthodox Jews from the nearby city of Modi’in Illit, who many complained crowded and messed up the park.

In response to the restrictive policy, which was enacted shortly before the Sukkot holiday in October 2012, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel sent a letter to the municipality, warning that the restriction was illegal as it violates the right to equality and in practice constitutes prohibited discrimination against a religious group.

“Restricting nonresidents’ entry to the park is illegal and constitutes prohibited discrimination,” said ACRI attorney Gil Gan-Mor.

In response, the municipality had secured its own opinion, offered by Professor Ariel Bendor, saying it believed the restriction was fully compatible with Israeli law.

When ACRI threatened to file a court petition, the Modi’in municipality clarified that this Passover, entrance to the park would be open to all. However, the Modi’in municipality refused to commit not to pose entry restrictions on nonresidents in the future.