Minister of Industry Trade and Labor Ehud Olmert has ordered the Israel Land Administration (ILA) to set up a team to negotiate with a group of Kfar Malal landowners on the terms for a deal to build 1,500 housing units in Hod Hasharon. The project's proceeds are estimated at $300 million.
Olmert's decision overrides ten years of objections in principle by ILA heads, and was taken after renewed pressure and recent meetings between Adv. Shraga Biran and ILA director-general Yaacov Efrati.
Through Biran, Kfar Malal members claim that under the original lease with the Jewish National Fund in 1932, the ILA should receive 4% of the value of the rezoned land, and the moshav (cooperative village) members have development rights. Assuming that the value of the land is one-third of the construction project, the ILA will receive only $4 million.
ILA heads have strongly rejected this demand, arguing that since Kfar Malal received supplementary land in 1981 - land on which the Kfar Malal area high-tech park was built - the old lease was superceded long ago, under ILA Council 108 Resolution in 1971.
After independence in 1948, the ILA awarded supplementary land to moshavim and kibbutzim (collective settlements) to meet the revised definitions of the amount of land needed to support a family. Under ILA Council decision 108, the supplementary land was awarded on the condition that no previous land lease would subsequently apply, but only ILA regulations valid at the time.
Biran, who represented Kfar Malal in the high-tech park deal, is now representing 29 Kfar Malal families in the Hod Hasharon deal. The family of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not a party to the present deal. If Biran's position is accepted, it will set a precedent for all pre-independence era moshavim that received supplementary land on one hand, while claiming special rights derived from the original leases on the other.
Olmert's office said in response: "Minister Olmert has never agreed to negotiations about a plan to build 1,500 residential units in Hod Hasharon on lands belonging to Kfar Malal residents. Representatives of Kfar Malal have claimed before the Israel Land Administration's management and overseeing Minister Olmert that according to their original 1932 lease with the Jewish National Fund they have the right to initiate projects on their land.
"Minister Olmert has accepted the ILA's recommendation that a professional team should examine these legal claims, only as to the matter in principle regarding the right to independent initiatives, and remaining property rights, as presented by the moshav residents.
"The minister knows nothing about any plan to build 1,500 residential units in Hod Hasharon, and no negotiations about this plan are taking place - and in any case, the minister has neither given his approval to conduct negotiations over such a plan, nor has the plan been presented to the minister by [Kfar Malal] residents, their representatives or ILA staff.
"Therefore, presenting a legal examination of claims made by the [Kfar Malal] residents, as if Minister Olmert had given instructions to conduct negotiations over a $300 million building plan is Mr. Lichtman's own original fantasy".
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on January 25, 2004