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Report: Ben Gvir tried to prevent demolition of illegally constructed Haredi synagogues

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Paper cites chief of Real Estate Enforcement Division as telling national security minister
there could be ‘a second Meron disaster in Bnei Brak’

By Sam Sokol
26 December 2024, 7:03 pm


Illustrative: Hasidic Jews in a synagogue in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak,
March 24, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attempted to lean on the head of a government unit that enforces building regulations in order to prevent the demolition of illegally constructed ultra-Orthodox synagogues in the central city of Bnei Brak, Haaretz reported this week.

According to the Hebrew daily, Ben Gvir sought to head off the demolition of dozens of houses of worship collectively described by unit insiders as “an immediate safety hazard” that borders on “a second Meron disaster” — a reference to the 2021 incident in which 45 people were killed in a crush at the northern gravesite of a second-century sage.

The newspaper further reported that Ben Gvir had suggested that members of the ultra-Orthodox community opposed to the demolitions send him “a list of illegally built mosques that were not demolished, so we can argue discriminatory enforcement.”

In addition, Ben Gvir was reported to have summoned Real Estate Enforcement Division chief Avi Cohen to a meeting, in which he argued he should “concentrate on enforcement and demolition in the Arab sector” — to which Cohen was said to reply that Ben Gvir was legally prohibited from intervening in the matter, and that “we are facing a second Meron disaster in Bnei Brak.”

While Ben Gvir’s ministry oversees the unit, authority over changes in policy relating to enforcement belongs to the attorney general, Haaretz noted.

Over the summer, the Knesset ratified a government decision to transfer authority over the Finance Ministry’s Real Estate Enforcement Division to the National Security Ministry — after which Ben Gvir declared that “those who break the law will encounter a firm hand and zero tolerance.”


Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks during a National Security Committee meeting at the
Knesset on November 27, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The transfer of the unit was vehemently opposed by Arab lawmakers, who argued that Ben Gvir would focus disproportionately on their communities.

Arab municipalities and neighborhoods have a higher prevalence of unauthorized construction, according to a 2022 study by the Sikkuy-Aufoq nonprofit, whose mission statement is to promote equality between Arabs and Jewish citizens of Israel. In the Haifa District, for example, 55 percent of all illegally constructed structures are concentrated in the predominantly Arab communities of the Wadi Ara area, east of Hadera.

Some advocates of reform in the enforcement of illegal construction in Israel allege that many Arab violators build without permits because of a combination of institutional racism and inefficient bureaucracy that makes it harder for Arabs to obtain permits.

The coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties also initially opposed Ben Gvir’s takeover of the unit but ultimately relented after his far-right Otzma Yehudit party backed legislation .. https://www.timesofisrael.com/mks-pass-bill-cementing-haredi-control-over-communitys-censored-kosher-phones/ .. cementing the Haredi establishment’s control over so-called kosher phones.

Responding to the Haaretz report, a spokesman for the minister told the newspaper that Cohen “never told [him] that he cannot interfere with enforcement policy, for the obvious reason that the minister is allowed to set policy, especially while his demand is merely to maintain equality before the law.”


A view of the ultra-Orthodox-majority city of Bnei Brak, August 06, 2019.
(Gili Yaari / Flash90)

Negligence and death

Earlier this year, a State Commission of Inquiry found that senior government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were responsible for the Meron disaster .. https://www.timesofisrael.com/state-inquiry-blames-netanyahu-but-does-not-sanction-him-for-deadly-2021-meron-crush/ , arguing that they should have known a disaster of this type was only a matter of time and worked to fix the problems instead of ignoring them.

Forty-five men and boys were killed on April 30, 2021, in the crush at the hilltop gravesite of second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron during the annual Lag B’Omer celebrations, after 100,000 worshipers, mostly members of the ultra-Orthodox community, crowded into the holy site despite longstanding warnings about the safety of the complex.

Following the disaster, several former police chiefs characterized Meron — Israel’s second-most visited Jewish holy site after the Western Wall — as a kind of extraterritorial facility. It was administered by several ultra-Orthodox groups, while the National Center for the Protection of Holy Places, part of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, apparently had some responsibility over it as well, as did the local authority and the police. But ultimately, no single state body had full responsibility.

The disaster occurred on a walkway erected illegally by members of the Toldos Aharon Hasidic sect.


Rescue forces and police at the scene after a mass fatality scene during the celebrations
of the Jewish holiday of Lag B’Omer on Mount Meron, in northern Israel on April 30,
2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)

A second disaster

Only a month after Meron, two people were killed and 167 injured when a bleacher collapsed .. https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-killed-over-130-hurt-as-synagogue-bleacher-collapses-near-jerusalem/ .. under celebrants in a synagogue in the Givat Ze’ev settlement outside Jerusalem just before the start of the Shavuot holiday.

Some large ultra-Orthodox events feature bleachers, known as “tribunas” in Israel, which are packed with standing or dancing parishioners surrounding a central table where community leaders are seated.

The synagogue was located in an incomplete building and had not been approved for use, the police commander of the Jerusalem District told reporters at the time.


The site where a bleacher crowded with worshipers collapsed in a synagogue in Givat
Ze’ev, near Jerusalem, at the start of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, May 16, 2021.
(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Documents published by Kan news showed police and the Givat Ze’ev municipality tried to enforce an order banning Shavuot services at the unfinished Karlin synagogue.

In the documents, police warned the local council about the danger of allowing services at the building, which did not have an occupancy permit. However, when the local council asked police to step in to enforce the closure, police responded that it was the council’s job.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-ben-gvir-attempted-to-prevent-demolition-of-illegal-haredi-synagogues/

Fundamentalist religious groups are no good for anyone. They stunt the growth of every
member and, by their very existence, do a disservice to the wider community.