The owners of the Diplomat Hotel in Jerusalem have petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to force the state to vacate the hotel's tenants by June 2020, the date on which the building will be handed over to the US government. The Marina Tel Aviv Hotel Company, controlled by Haim Schiff, owns the land on which the hotel was built. Since the 1990s, the hotel has housed immigrants declared eligible for state housing by the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption under a 1991 lease signed by the state and the company.
The petitioners say that even though the building was sold to the US government in 2014, the state has made no real effort to offer the 450 families (700 people) living there alternative housing. Most of the families consist of elderly immigrants. The petition is against the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, Amidar, the Ministry of Construction and Housing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Jerusalem municipality.
Under the sale agreement between Marina Tel Aviv Hotel and the US government, the company is obligated to deliver the building free of tenants by June 30, 2020. The company believes that the US is planning to construct a permanent building on the site for the US embassy in Jerusalem near the area where the embassy is now temporarily located.
The deadline is approaching with no solution in store
The petition, filed through Adv. David Zailer, Adv. Dr. Saar Pauker, and Adv. Benny Winston of the Herzog Fox Neeman law firm, alleges that the state is not fulfilling its duties and obligations to the company and the immigrants and elderly people currently living in the hotel. Furthermore, the petitioners warn that failure to vacate the property on time will also damage the strategic relations between Israel and the US. The US government is also named as a respondent to the petition, given to the damage that is could suffer.
The petitioner states that as a result of the state's conduct, "The respondents are threatening to leave the petitioner with no recourse and enormous damages to the petitioner, which will have difficulty in delivering the hotel to the US government on time and in good order. The petitioner may have to evict hundreds of immigrant families, an eventuality that the petition is making every effort to avoid… The petitioner has no interest in and does not wish to be a party to such a measure." The company added, "The state is legally responsible for the dignity and housing of the immigrants, but is standing idly by with outrageous indifference."
The company also owns the land next to the Diplomat Hotel at 14 David Flusser on which the US consular building stands. In 2002, a lease was signed by the company and the US government in which the US government undertook to rent the consular site for 25 years with two 25-year extension options. The US government also has an option to purchase the Diplomat Hotel. In June 2014, the US announced its wish to exercise the purchase option, and the hotel was sold to it. The lease signed by the company with the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption was valid until 2016. At the ministry's request, however, the company reached agreement with the US government on a four-year extension.
In December 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that he would move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and the US embassy in Jerusalem was inaugurated in the consular building in May 2018. The petition states that as of now, the embassy has been transferred only partly. The petitioner states, "There is no doubt that the Diplomat Hotel constitutes a central location for the US embassy and for other diplomatic needs likely to bolster the important relations between the two countries." Nevertheless, the petitioners state, the government ministries have done nothing about finding a solution for the immigrant families.
"The respondents' failures are made much more serious by the potential damage to Israel's relations with the US," the petition states. "The US government explicitly stated that it wanted to receive the property completely empty of people by June 30, 2020… The respondents' conduct show that they regard the vacating date as merely a recommendation, and do not hesitate to damage Israel's essential interests."
The company states that it contacted the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption and presented it with a clear timetable, but received no reply. "The petitioner… will eventually pay the price of these failures, whether by having to evict the immigrant families or by risking a claim by the US government for breaching the company's obligations to vacate the hotel by June 30, 2020 and a difficult legal proceeding. The petitioner does not accept either of these alternatives."
The US demands delivery of the property on time
The petitioner says that at a meeting of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs in December 2017, Ministry of Immigration and Absorption director general Alex Kushnir promised that a housing solution would be found for every tenant in the Diplomat Hotel. In another discussion in March 2018, however, he said that finding alternative housing was very difficult, and avoided giving a date for removing the tenants. At that discussion, Ministry of Finance budget department aliyah supervisor Eyal Madan said that he did not know of any budget request for planning a new dwelling for the hundreds of immigrants who would be evicted under the 2019 budget approved by the Knesset. "Despite the respondents' total awareness of the need to find a solution for the problem of hundreds of residents of the Diplomat Hotel, they are still unable to report any concrete progress in the exact timetable or location of an alternative building," the petition states.
The company says that at that Knesset discussion, Ministry of Foreign Affairs North American Bureau director Joshua Zarka stated, "I will be very surprised if the US can live with an extension of the lease… They sent us a very clear message saying that they expect the property to be vacated by June 2020." In August 2018, Ministry of Immigration and Absorption deputy housing director Haviv Katzav wrote in answer to a letter from Marina Tel Aviv Hotel Company concerning the imminent vacating of the site, "Our ministry is aware of the vacating dates. We are examining the alternatives, and will keep you informed." The petition alleges that despite the time pressure, the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption less than a year ago was only at the stage of examining alternatives, which were not spelled out.
The company stated that none of its subsequent queries to the state had been answered. "The policy of ignoring the problem by the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, which did not bother to hold a discussion or answer the petitioner's requests, is systematic." The company summarized its petition by saying that the distress of the immigrants in the Diplomat Hotel eligible for public housing was very great, and affected their dignity as people, and that their future was very unclear.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 27, 2019
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