Lands Administration blocks kibbutzim from renting homes to non-members
Rental of homes on kibbutzim evolved into a highly lucrative industry over the past two decades.
By Amiram CohenThe Israel Lands Administration rejected a compromise proposal that would have allowed kibbutzim to continue to rent out apartments to non-members. It says the practice violates the prohibition against using kibbutz land for anything other than agricultural purposes. Only kibbutz members may live in kibbutz homes, the ILA says.
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Construction on a kibbutz. New building cannot be for rentals. |
| Photo by: Itzik Ben-Malki |
New residential construction on kibbutzim slowed to a near halt in recent months, after the ILA made building permits contingent upon signing an affidavit that the new construction was not for rental purposes.
A few kibbutzim are considering taking legal action against the ILA. They say the agency's policy was not grounded in legislation, court ruling or a decision by the agency's governing body, the Israel Lands Council. In any event, they said, the ILA doesn't have the legal authority to condition the approval of building permits on an undertaking not to rent out the residences.
Hadaf Hayarok, the newspaper of the kibbutzim, reported that ILA Agricultural Division head Shula Ben Zvi had presented Kibbutz Movement leaders with a compromise proposal during a visit to a few kibbutzim in the Beit She'an Valley: The ILA would take a share of the rental income, until a comprehensive agreement over what it calls the non-conforming use of state land could be reached. The ILA, however, has stated the rental practice cannot continue.
Rental of homes on kibbutzim evolved into a highly lucrative industry over the past two decades. While the practice existed on a small scale for decades, it gained momentum as a result of the economic crisis that hit the kibbutzim in the 1980s, leading many members to leave and creating a reserve of empty homes. Kibbutzim began renting out the homes as well as communal buildings, especially former children's houses, after converting them into apartments.
The rentals are very profitable, as the construction costs for the properties were paid off decades ago. The buildings require little or no expense to maintain, and business costs are low. The profitability of the sector led some kibbutzim to build apartments as rental property.
The Kibbutz Movement estimates that about 150 kibbutzim rent out apartments, with monthly rentals ranging from NIS 2,000 for a three-room apartment in the north or south of the country to NIS 4,000 for a three-room house in central Israel. These rentals are estimated to bring in a total of around NIS 15 million a year.
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Sounds like this is a matter for the lawmakers to deal with. The MK's have to pass a law redefining these agricultural communities to reflect the 21st Century reality! Wonder what changes such a law will bring into effect? While they're making these changes, also change the definition of "citizenship", and most importantly, WRITE A CONSTITUTION! Don't let things become regulated by the religious ultra right by default.
when you wrote you talkbalk. There is an issue of converting the taxation rate for agricultural land to the level of residential that some Kibbutzim have "passed over", avoiding the "mas shevakh" that moshavim end up paying when they establish 'burbs for Israeli exurbs on their lands. That doesn't need a constitution, it needs somebody to stick the bill on 'em. Now, where is the "religious ultra-right" get involved in your rant. What is the . . . anyway. Maybe, like so many ultra-secularists in this country its another idee fixe they have yet to remove from their collective consciousness.
Has the reporter ever visited one of the kibbutzim in the north or south she's reporting about? Does she ever leave her Shenkin Street coffee house? Beit Shean Valley kibbutzim are a great example. The houses being rented out (and I know exactly what I'm talking about) are mostly very small (2-3 rooms ~60 sqm) old apartments, built in the '50s or '60s before children lived at home and they're empty because with children can't live in them. They're also located in areas where real estate values are very low. The kibbutzim rent them out, usually to young married couples just starting out (often sons/daughters of members who aren't ready to commit to being members), or employees the kibbutz needs to find housing for (nurses, etc...) at minimal rents. From my experience the kibbutzim are more interested in having the young families live on the kibbutz, send their kids to the ganim and schools and participate in the kibbutz's social life, than the money from the rent (though since the kibbutzim aren't all that wealthy, every little bit helps). Forcing the kibbutzim to chuck out these young families would be a crime.
60sqm are the newer houses built in the '80s/'90s for families with children. The houses I wrote about are more like 45sqm.
privatized, instead of what was uniform salaries, and other symbols of frugrality, its more like some settlement where everybody lives on their "own incomes". Gone are the signs of equality that was the hallmark of the Kibbutz. T'would seem that the concepts of the founders are go no longer there. You wonder what's left of "the Kibbutz". Indeed, if you ask people who live there, they will admit that there ain't no more Kibbutzim. The bottom line is that what they do is for protit only. Why should these "mityashvim" be treated any better than any other Israelis. They got the land "for free" because they were "chalutzim". Today when "rentabliliut" has taken over, so do their privileges.
The ILA may or may not have legality and/or morality behind their decision. I ask, though, what happens to the many hundreds of students who have found rental housing on kibbutzim all over Israel? It is often cheaper, and always safer, than life in the city, and provides a good social network as well.
The Kibbutzim have and should have a right to use the land for agriculture but not for rentals or for retail outlets. It is not being leased to them for that purpose and they are not paying for that privilege.