Do not be misled: Mikve Israel will not really open to the public

They took the largest green area in Gush Dan from the public – and now they are even calling it 'opening to the public.' The decision of the subcommittee for appeals regarding Mikve Israel does not open the complex. It mainly grants legitimacy to the fact that for the coming years, the public will continue to stand outside the fence.

Anyone who reads the decision understands very quickly that the headlines are misleading. Mikve Israel will not become an open park. The public will not be able to walk freely in this vast space. At most, a passage will be established in the future that will connect Holon to Highway 44, and even it will be open only during limited hours when the school is not active. Since a boarding school also operates on the premises, even this passage will not be open for most of the day. This is not opening Mikve Israel to the public. This is a corridor. This is a historic missed opportunity.

In the heart of Gush Dan, in the most crowded area in Israel, lies the largest open space in the metropolis. Precisely in a place where large parks, walking paths, bicycle paths, groves, and shaded spaces are lacking, the state chooses to continue holding the land behind closed gates. The claim that there is no choice because schools and a boarding school operate on the site is not convincing. No one is suggesting opening the classrooms or the residential complexes. It is possible to fence off the school areas, ensure the safety of the students, and at the same time open the vast area around it as a metropolitan park that will serve the residents of Holon, Tel Aviv, Bat Yam, Rishon LeZion, and all of Gush Dan. This is an accepted solution in the world, and it would have allowed for maintaining the educational activity without preventing the public from accessing a rare public resource.

For decades, people have spoken about Mikve Israel as a national asset. But a national asset that the country's citizens cannot enter is not really a public asset. It is a closed asset. The decision of the subcommittee for appeals did not solve the problem. It only gave it a more convenient headline. Instead of opening the most important open space in the center of the country to the public, it perpetuated the status quo. The losers are the millions of residents of Gush Dan, who could have received one of the most important metropolitan parks in Israel – and instead received a promise of a narrow and limited passage.