Thursday April 24 2025: Construction of Berger Towers starts in the Katamonim district of Jerusalem.
Critics warn that ordinary Jerusalemites are quickly being completely priced out of the city.
In a ceremony held days before Pesach the Berger Group marked the beginning of its Berger Towers project in Katamonim, Jerusalem. The event celebrated the demolition phase, paving the way for more urban sprawl otherwise known as high rise development in Jerusalem.
The large-scale project involves the destruction of 95 old apartments with the resultant removal of families who had lived for decades in the area and couldn't afford other property.
The three ugly skyscraper towers range from 25-30 floors. Prices start at NIS 2,530,000 ($693,726 USD)! Of course, ordinary Jerusalemites cannot afford this. Katomonim residents meanwhile say it will mar the landscape and only benefit developers
The Berger Towers development is fueling inequality in Jerusalem and pricing out people with lower incomes from being able to live in and even access Katamonim, This creates even more significant disparities between the haves and have-nots.
In the early 20th century, the British mandated that Jerusalem homes be covered with Jerusalem stone and limited in height to maintain the air of an ancient Holy City. Even after Israel’s independence in 1948, City Hall resisted high-rise construction, and in the 1970s and 1980s, imposing projects like the Wolfson Towers in Rehavia and the Clal building in the city centre were highly contentious.
Urban planners are confident that they are leading Jerusalem on the path to modernity and prosperity, many residents fear that their city is being led to ruin
Of great concern to freedom fighters is that the towering monstrosities are being designed on the basis that cars will no longer have access to the city. Policies such as the 15 Minute City or walkable community seek to reduce car use and force residents to use public transport.
“We are creating a new reality in Jerusalem" say the planners. Not everyone shares the developer's enthusiasm. “This is going to ruin Jerusalem,” said Sara Ben Shaul Weiss, part of a forum of local activists protesting the construction.
“The city is enabling developers to enrich themselves by selling expensive properties primarily to foreign buyers while harming the locals,” she said. “This type of building isn’t helping to solve the housing crisis; it’s creating a situation in which the middle class will be unable to afford to live here, leaving only the poor and a bunch of empty apartments owned by wealthy people abroad.”
Ben Shaul Weiss charges that the city’s plans are unrealistic and that massive building projects are being approved without proper consideration of their effects on residents. “There is no planning for infrastructure,” she said, going through a litany of problems the skyscrapers will bring to communities.
Ben Shaul Weiss charged that such projects will overextend electricity and sewage infrastructure, destroy the sense of community in neighbourhoods, increase property taxes and building maintenance costs, limit access to schools, overcrowd parks and synagogues, and generally pack people into buildings like sardines. Tall buildings will create “urban deserts” where sunlight is blocked, trees cannot grow, and wind tunnels form that make being outdoors difficult, she added.
“The city isn’t thinking about the damage it is causing or the needs of the residents,” Ben Shaul Weiss said. “The only planning tool it is using is profitability.”
Architect David Kroyanker, who has written a number of books on Jerusalem, shared his concerns. “Most of the buildings being planned for Jerusalem look like the towers scattered all over Israel, and they have nothing unique about them,” he says.
“Another problem is that when you adorn a tall building with stone, it doesn’t look delicate. The urban picture you get from all these towers is neither good nor interesting. It will lead to a loss of the city’s unique identity.”
Finally, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee have approved a plan for a 42-floor tower block near Mount Herzl in the capital despite opposition against the new building which will bock out the skyline, a source close to the matter has told Globes.
The controversial plan in the Epstein complex overlooks the Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance center and the Mount Herzl military cemetery. Critics have quite rightly insisted that the plan was disrespectful to the memory of fallen soldiers and the Holocaust.
However, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, headed by Shira Talmi Babay, claimed that the plan aligned with the policy of more dense construction along the light rail route and gave final approval for the high-rise construction.
The plan is to build Epstein Tower on a seven dunam (1.75 acres) site along Herzl Boulevard, south of Mount Herzl and Yad Vashem, close to a light rail station. The tower will contain 240 housing units, 60,000 square meters of office space, and an 11,000 square meter hotel on the lower floors. It will have an additional 4,000 square meters accessible to the public, a museum, a cultural center, and more. A public square facing northwards will be outside of the building.
Almost 200 objections were submitted to the plan, many of them saying the tower would "dwarf and severely damage" the status of Mount Herzl and Yad Vashem and that it was "blasphemy." Objections also stated that the plan is "contrary to the public interest and in complete contrast to the values of Judaism, Zionism, heritage, social culture, nature, and the landscape of Jerusalem."
Another major opponent is the Association of Architects and City Builders in Israel, which pointed out that the intensity of construction in the plan is not in accordance with the policy of dense construction along the Jerusalem light rail route and that the height of the tower is exceptional Jerusalem's skyline. Despite all this, the district committee decided to approve the plan.
Martin Blackham Israel First TV Program www.israelfirst.org