Residents of Israel’s south were surprised on a recent Saturday morning when they saw heavy construction machinery operating on an empty site west of Kiryat Gat.

Government construction projects are almost never carried out on Shabbat, when such work is prohibited according to Jewish law. Many were irked by the irony of the situation: The construction project in question was laying the groundwork for a future ultra-Orthodox city, tentatively known as Plugot.

The work was later attributed to a subcontractor’s mistake and was quickly halted. But the incident put the spotlight on a controversial plan that could reshape housing policies for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities for years to come.

A number of proposed Haredi cities in the Negev have advanced through government approvals as a measure to alleviate a housing crisis threatening the fast-growing community. Their proponents, led by a former housing minister — United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf — believe the projects could provide a long-term solution to the sector’s rapid growth.

But policymakers are still divided over the value of such plans — which are currently stalled — and whether their implementation would create more harm than good.

“The Haredi population is growing very quickly, and the government faces a dilemma of whether to encourage their integration into existing cities or to develop new cities where they can live the lifestyles they are accustomed to,” said Eran Razin, a professor of geography at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a member of the board of Israel’s Planners Association.

Large influxes of Haredim into secular neighborhoods sometimes bring with them clashes over issues such as public transportation on Shabbat, education, and the character of public spaces.

The restrictions and rituals that come with ultra-Orthodox life also require an additional level of infrastructure, including synagogues, study houses and ritual baths — all usually within walking distance of each other.

But Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population is growing much more quickly than the country’s current building trends account for. There are believed to be over 1.45 million Haredi Jews in Israel today, making up 14 percent of the population, according to the Israel Democracy Institute, and studies show the sector may comprise as much as a quarter of Israel’s population by 2050.

But government land allocations for new homes far undershoot this reality. A state comptroller’s report in 2023 found that only 4% of new buildings approved between 2017 and 2021 were intended for ultra-Orthodox populations, or just 25,000 units out of 623,000. Those numbers have since increased, but more than 10,000 units must be approved per year to reach the government’s target of 200,000 new homes for the sector by 2035, the report said.

Meanwhile, as their numbers grow, ultra-Orthodox communities are increasingly moving out of traditional strongholds such........

© The Times of Israel