Court ruling may end burial society monopoly in Israel

The Hevra Kadisha religious burial society in Herzliya Wednesday withdrew its petition to the High Court of Justice against the Israel Lands Administration and Herzliya municipality asking to be allocated part of the new cemetery in the city.

The High Court recommended that the burial society withdraw its petition after the court made it clear that it saw no way to force the city to allocate the land.

City hall called the move a breakthrough that after 70 years would end the Hevra Kadisha's monopoly on burials not only in the city, but throughout the country.

The petition discussed a severe shortage of burial plots in the old Herzliya cemetery.

In fact, there are no single plots left, only the empty half of family plots.

The burial society said the only solution was the allocation of land in the new cemetery next to Kibbutz Glil Yam.

The plaintiffs said they have been trying for 10 years to find a solution and have been warning the authorities for years.

In response, the city and the ILA said there was no reason to allocate such land to the Hevra Kadisha, even if they were running out of room in the old cemetery.

The defendants said they were well aware of the problem of a lack of burial space and so they acted for years to advance plans for the new cemetery, which will be run by a city-owned corporation.

Financial interests

The municipality and Herzliya's religious council will take part in the management of the corporation.

In addition, the city claimed that the burial society's interest in the new cemetery was financial, making their petition unjustified.

"Nine years ago they came and told me there were no burial plots, and this threat has accompanied me for years," mayor Yael German said on Wednesday.

"So we decided to advance the zoning plan for the cemetery integrated into a broader city plan that was approved only a few months ago," she said.

"We also decided that it was appropriate for this public service to be placed in public hands."

German noted that six years ago the city had tried to put two representatives on the cemetery's management board, but the Hevra Kadisha refused.

'Public service in private hands'

"It is unthinkable that such a public service has been kept so far from the public eye .... The service is in private hands - though seemingly a nonprofit - but without proper supervision," said German. "Our goal is not to make a profit. We are under supervision of the [treasury's] supervisor of wages, of the city auditor and of the state comptroller - and they're not."

German noted that the city had conducted an examination with the registrar of nonprofit organizations; it was discovered that the annual salary costs for the head of the Hevra Kadisha in Herzliya is NIS 750,000 - almost twice that of the city's director general. In addition, the burial society ended 2007 with a NIS 12.5 million surplus.

"The hysteria they created over a lack of burial plots without a doubt encouraged many people to buy a plot ... and filled the Hevra Kadisha's coffers," said German.

Herzliya is not the first to establish a municipal corporation to run a cemetery, but it seems it's the first to end the religious burial society's monopoly.

Only a few cities have taken on the mangement of their cemeteries, said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the executive director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. These include Omer, Modi'in and Kiryat Tivon. In most municipalities the Hevra Kadisha operates as a private nonprofit organization, most of whose income comes from National Insurance Institute burial allowances, said Kariv.

Another option is for religious councils to run burial societies, he said, but what happened in Herzliya is precedent-setting in that it's the first time a city has decided to end a burial society's monopoly.

The CEO of the Herzliya municipal development corporation, Shraga Alkalay, said the new cemetery covers 35 dunams (almost 9 acres), with only three dunams to be developed in the first stage - enough space for 1,000 plots in multilevel burial structures.

The first 120 plots are scheduled to be ready in four months, once final approvals are received. These are expected within days. The city said all the plans are ready and the contractor has been chosen and is ready to start work, he said. Alkalay said 10 percent of the graves will be allocated for alternative burial and the rest will be for traditional religious burials.