Last month, a unique advertising campaign went viral. Israeli singer Shlomi Shabat fronted a campaign for the town of Bnei Ayish, which is set to become a city. The plan to expand the town near Ashdod was approved in 2021, and has now reached the project marketing stage.
The plan includes construction of 5,739 housing units, with potential for 18,364 new residents (based on an average of 3.2 people per household in Israel), for a town that currently has fewer than 6,500 residents. In other words, upon completion of the plan, Bnei Ayish will almost quadruple its size and become a small city of about 25,000 people.
While the ad campaign has been unique, Bnei Ayish is by no means the only Israeli town set to more than double in size.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Construction and Housing announced that it had signed a comprehensive development agreement with the Beit Dagan local council. As part of the agreement, 2,531 new housing units will be built in the town near Ben Gurion Airport. According to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the town currently has less than 8,000 residents. The new homes will add another 8,099 residents to town so that its population will more than double. 40,000 square meters of office and commercial space is also included in Beit Dagan’s development agreement.
In recent years, many Israeli cities have added thousands of residents over a short period of time, but when it comes to small towns, this is more dramatic, with major work needed in terms of infrastructure and manpower.
What does such a transformation do to a small town, and how can it cope with such a change successfully, and which other small-medium towns expected to undergo a similar process?
"An addition that changes identity and pace of life"
The transition from a quiet small, pastoral town to a city - Beer Yaakov is a good example of a settlement that has undergone this process in recent years - is not an easy transition, as Sharon Band of the URBAND office for strategic urban planning and chairwoman of the Merhav Association for Urbanism explains.
"When a town of 6,500 residents, like Bnei Ayish for example, 'jumps' in potential to more than 24,000 residents, it changes identity, pace of life, local economy and service systems.
"If we don't manage it wisely, we end up with disconnected 'dormitory neighborhoods', traffic congestion, and polarization between old and new. We at the association are definitely bothered by the processes that small towns in Israel are going through, in which they are undergoing an accelerated process at a dizzying pace. There is no doubt that this is a huge challenge that is not receiving enough attention at the preparation level."
And is there a way to do it right?
"Yes. If this process is managed correctly, it is possible to have a 'leap' in urbanism that actually constitutes an opportunity: more services, more transport, more education and community and still maintain a pastoral character, in the sense of open space and scenery, and not become a dense city without quality. Even a town that is considered prestigious, such as Lahavim, can maintain its status during major expansion, through quality planning and management. A town that grows smartly can even become stronger.
"How do you do that?
It is important to grow in stages and not all at once. To plan several 'waves' of population, with threshold conditions and principles such as planning and building a public skeleton before residential real estate, treatment of the street network and traffic in the area, a backbone of open public spaces and public areas, commercial/community centers within walking distance, and not one mall on a central road, and finally the fabric of residential construction, with an emphasis on looking beyond the boundaries of the plan and thinking about the dynamics and synergy between the old and the new. The urban part of the town must be given high added value in relation to suburban construction, and the high-density part must be utilized to provide new services that residents could not previously enjoy.
"The housing mix is also very important: 5,700 new housing units, as in the case of Bnei Ayish, can provide a uniform, homogeneous neighborhood that does not merge with the existing one. And this can be done through a smart mix: small apartments for young people or adults, family apartments, a few houses where appropriate, assisted living complexes and long-term rental housing complexes. The rural nature of the town can also be maintained through boundaries and landscape, and not just through low density because rural is not necessarily just single-family houses. And the bottom line, the more diverse the mix, the easier it is to build a stable service system and prevent polarization."
And how do we prepare for all this in advance?
"A community absorption plan is required: community institutions, events, joint committees of veterans and newcomers to create a beneficial encounter, educational, youth and cultural institutions as an anchor that connects populations. This is a situation that needs to be managed sensitively. In addition, it is important to ensure correct implementation phases: no more housing units are populated before there is a school, a suitable transport route, an active neighborhood center, a drainage solution, and more."
"Every resident has my telephone number"
Tel Aviv University Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership CEO Edit Bar, who is the former director of the Ministry of Interior Development Administration highlights more challenges.
She says, "With such a significant leap as these places are expected to undergo, there are many challenges, due to population growth. These places have become accustomed to providing residents with a certain service, but when new residents arrive from other authorities, usually buying a bigger place having lived in stronger authorities, they expect to receive service exactly like they received in the previous authority, in a variety of services: culture, education, garbage collection, and more. But in my opinion, the most significant thing is in a major jump in the level of management: many times in my role I ask a mayor if he has a service center, and he replies, 'Each resident has my own personal phone number.' This perception must change: we are no longer an authority with a head of the authority and a few service providers, but a real city.
"We need to build a municipal mechanism that knows how to deal with the increasing volume, a service center that knows how to respond to inquiries that will grow, that knows how to investigate itself, that understands the variety of inquiries, and more.
"It all starts with the mayor's perception, who understands that he needs to make a super significant leap. It is possible that the office holders who served the authority in the previouis era are not necessarily suitable, or that they themselves need to make a leap.
"Authorities that go through this process move from a perception of survival - the perception of many small authorities - to a perception of growth, investment, strategy, building relevant units in the authority for the residents. The authority needs to move to thinking about growth engines, how to build a work plan, how to introduce customized information systems, how to understand what type of population is expected to arrive and what its needs are, how to adapt the services to it. And more.
"Also with the central government: the expectation of government ministries from a large authority is that it will know more and more to take the lead and to think strategically about how within a few years, with proper management, it will rely less on government budgets and rely on independent sources of income."
Contrary to popular belief, from a personal perspective, the heads of authorities have no special incentive to do this, since according to the 2024 salary circular, the monthly salary increase between a town of up to 10,000 residents and a town of more than 20,000 is NIS 2,000 in total. However, employees at senior levels in the municipality can register substantial jumps of several thousand shekels in monthly salary, and a town that exceeds 10,000 residents can receive deputy mayors on salary.
Bar says, "The more the authority can pay, the more it can attract higher-quality personnel and this permeates downward, to all departments. There is structured growth in these units, in accordance with the keys of the Ministry of the Interior, so that they can gradually provide services to both more residents and a greater variety of residents.
"I expect the local leadership, which is about to grow significantly, to understand that every head of an authority who faces such a challenge is neither the first nor the last to experience it. If I were them, I would travel and meet a mayor who faced a similar challenges and ask what are the most successful things you have done, where do you feel you failed, where could you have been more precise.
"From my experience, there is a great deal of openness among heads of authorities. They are happy to share their experience, where they have succeeded and where they have been less successful, and this is the most important experience that no one else can teach."
Israeli cities to set to more than double in the coming years: Abu Sanan from 14,500 residents to 30,500; Even Yehuda from 15,400 to 27,000; Beit Dagan from 7,700 to 16,000; Bnei Ayush from 6,500 to 24,500; Gedera from 31,600 to 57,000; Tura’an from 15,100 to 25,800; Ilut from 9,100 to 14,000; Kedima-Tzoran from 22,600 to 43,500; and Kiryat Ekron from 11,200 to 25,000.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 26, 2026.
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