After a seven-year struggle, the Jerusalem District Court today rejected a plan to build a neighborhood of beachfront luxury houses at an antiquities site near the aqueduct north of Caesarea. The court ruled that the antiquities are a cultural asset that should be preserved.
Judge David Mintz dismissed the petition by the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation and the Caesarea Development Corporation against the decision by the Israel Antiquities Authority to reject the detailed building plan for the neighborhood. The Caesarea Development Corporation is responsible for the development and selling of lots in Caesarea, and the sale proceeds finance the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation, which uses them for education and philanthropic activities.
The location was declared an antiquities site in 1944, under the British Mandate's Antiquities Order. The Antiquities Order was later superseded by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The outline plan for Caesarea was approved in 1963. The plan included building restrictions for the neighborhood in question related to antiquities in the area, but in 1996, the site was again declared an antiquities site. In 2005, the Caesarea Development Corporation and the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation applied to develop the site as a residential neighborhood, and the case reached the courts when the Antiquities Authority objected.
The court also dismissed the petitioners' argument that the Antiquities Authority's decision was tantamount to the expropriation of land, an act that they said was solely the authority of the minister responsible for the authority. The court ruled that the land was not expropriated, in part because it is possible to develop the site for tourism.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 24, 2012
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