Real estate firm markets new Haredi settlement that government hasn’t heard of
Afikim Rosenthaler says interested buyers are made aware that cabinet approval for northern West Bank city still pending, but relevant ministries aren’t even aware project exists
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
A real estate company has been marketing land where it plans to build a new city-settlement for ultra-Orthodox Israelis, but the government has yet to approve the establishment of the town and none of the relevant ministries is even aware that the plan exists.
Last year, Afikim Rosenthaler Properties and Investments began advertising its sale of land in the northern West Bank, where it says the community of Dorot Illit will one day be founded. The going rate for 100 square meters is roughly NIS 93,000 ($25,293), according to a Monday report in the Globes financial daily.
During that time, the project began receiving support from a number of elected officials, including Housing Minister Yoav Gallant and United Torah Judaism MK Ya’akov Asher, who toured the area last June.
Both lawmakers said in video statements, now featured on the Afikim Rosenthaler website, that Dorot Illit would provide a solution to the growing housing crisis facing ultra-Orthodox families unable to find affordable apartments in central Israel.
Dorot Illit would be located between the Etz Efraim and Ma’ale Shomron settlements and the Samaria Regional Council has expressed its intention to include the city in its municipal boundaries.
An official from Afikim Rosenthaler who spoke with The Times of Israel predicted that it would take roughly eight years to break ground on the project, during which the land would be prepared for residential use and the necessary approvals would be obtained from various state bodies.
On the website it created for interested buyers, the real estate group highlights a cabinet decision from 1984 that it claims it “cleared the area for construction in order to establish a community there.”
An Israeli investment firm called Yakir bought 200 dunam (49 acres) in the northern West Bank from the original Palestinian landowners in the early 1980s, laying the groundwork for the construction of a new Israeli town.
But that 1984 cabinet decision was passed to establish a community called Neria that was never built. In 1992, the Yitzhak Rabin government passed another decision requiring new settlements that had yet to be advanced through planning stages to receive additional authorization from the cabinet — even if the cabinet had previously approved their construction.
That meant that the community that was green-lit in 1984 would need another stamp of approval from ministers, regardless of the name-change.
Two years ago, Yakir sold land the land to another firm located abroad, which in turn recruited Afikim Rosenthaler — whose specialty is housing for the ultra-Orthodox community — to market it. The firm plans to build 2,000 apartments in the first stage of construction and another 8,000 in the second stage.
The real estate company official who spoke with The Times of Israel said that prospective buyers are told upfront that additional government approvals are still required for ground to be broken on the project.
In the meantime, the firm allows investors to purchase plots of agricultural land at a low price (NIS 93,000 for 100 square meters), which would be given residential status following a cabinet decision officially recognizing Dorot Illit. At that point, buyers will be asked to put down an additional NIS 700,000 ($190,379) and, in return, will receive a four-bedroom apartment in the settlement — a price significantly lower than the going rate elsewhere in the Israeli housing market.
The Afikim Rosenthaler official said that it discourages young couples or those who don’t already own an apartment from investing.
At the same time, the firm displays the project on its website as having “government assistance” and “broad support from representatives of the ultra-Orthodox public.”
But when Globes requested a response from the housing and interior ministries regarding Dorot Illit, both offices said they were not aware of such a plan.
“The Housing and Construction Ministry is not familiar with a plan to establish a city, but when the master plans reach the planning institutions, the ministry will examine the plan and formulate its position,” Gallant’s old office said.
Nonetheless, the former housing minister — who left the post last month — told Globes that he was introduced to the plan by staff from his old office.
“I do not know the commercial side and I do not know about marketing. That is their (Afikim Rosenthaler’s) decision. In that area, there has to be an (Israeli) town and it can represent my worldview of (the importance of) controlling the western ridges of Samaria,” he said.
Moreover, the Civil Administration — the Defense Ministry body that authorizes West Bank construction — said it has not received any building plans from Afikim Rosenthaler pertaining to Dorot Illit.
A defense official told The Times of Israel that it was not even clear whether the plots currently being sold by the real estate firm are the same ones that Yakir purchased over 30 years ago.
For its part, Afikim Rosenthaler said in a statement that all of its operations were being conducted by the book and that the firm was in close consultation with experts in West Bank property law.
Hagit Ofran from the Peace Now settlement watchdog said that Afikim Rosenthaler “is indeed interested in building a city, but they also want to make money, so they’ve started marketing land to people before they’ve received any of the approvals.”
To be clear, there is nothing illegal about such conduct so long as the potential buyers are made aware of the risks. Ofran said that while the practice is rare in the West Bank, there have been other instances where land is marketed before the relevant ministries have green-lighted the establishment of the community. One such project is for a neighborhood adjacent to the Givat Ze’ev settlement. The real estate group marketing the land: Afikim Rosenthaler.
She argued that in the case of Dorot Illit, the firm is using pictures of officials such as Gallant — who himself is interested in expanding his support among settlers in the upcoming Likud primaries — to show prospective clients “that the project has legitimacy.”
The Peace Now staffer characterized the prospect of a new Haredi city being established in the West Bank as “wishful thinking,” saying it would be difficult to prove such a large purchase of land from three decades prior.
Nonetheless, the firm is confident in its project and said it plans to continue marketing land to interested investors.
The Times of Israel Community.