Following three years of committee discussions and countless meetings, the Interior Ministry’s Jerusalem District Geographical Committee rejected the request of the Telzstone Council to expand the yishuv, while approving the request of the neighboring Arab settlement of Abu Ghosh. Even more outrageous is the fact that the committee members justified their denial of Telzstone’s request by citing “environmental issues,” which strangely enough didn’t apply to Abu Ghosh, right next door to Telzstone. It’s not surprising that the person who led the battle against expanding Telzstone was MK Alex Kushnir of Yisrael Beiteinu, the right-hand man of Avigdor Lieberman. Kushnir even celebrated the “victory” on Facebook, writing: “The attempt at religious coercion and taking over natural areas in the Jerusalem hills have been thwarted! I welcome the recommendation of the Geographical Committee.” Yitzchak Ravitz, the head of the Telzstone Council said: “This is an outrage that should shock us all: the same committee that approves one yishuv rejects the request of the second yishuv. The same conditions apply to both yishuvim – the only difference is that one yishuv is Chareidi and the other is Arab. Chareidim: No. Arabs: Yes. There’s no other reason – it’s exactly the same area, the same scenic conditions and environmental values apply to both yishuvim. It’s astounding that they approved construction for the Arabs and not for the Chareidim.” “It should be noted that two committees already approved the expansion from a professional viewpoint,” Ravitz noted. “A master plan was prepared by the Housing Ministry already in 1999, in which dozens of consultants were involved – landscape, economic, societal, developmental, and infrastructural. The ministry came to an unequivocal conclusion that the area should be incorporated into Telzstone. It’s impossible to escape the conclusion that what happened is an act of pure hatred of Chareidim. ” Following the decision, UTJ MK Yisrael Eichler slammed Kushnir from the Knesset plenum for his undisguised hatred of Charedim, wryly saying: “It’s a question whether nature, flowers and flies are aware of who lives in Abu Ghosh and who lives in Telzstone.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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