No Need For Paul Revere When You Have Email

I was just checking on our main email, where we get notices from the yishuv group, and I saw a notice that the inspectors are coming to do a survey of the building by us. The email asked for people who are on the yishuv itself to go down to the gate and block the entrance.  (I am not at home now – but I wouldn’t go down anyway!)

Personally I think the protests are for show. Whoever has started building already (foundations poured, at least) will be able to continue.  In our yishuv that includes two main contractors and a few private families.

Those who haven’t started will need to wait. In our case this means a group of young families who have had migrashim (plots of land) for quite a long time, and have not moved on it. I think it will serve them right if they are now delayed by outside forces. There is a myth where we live that it is cheaper to build on your own than with a contractor. Every young couple thinks that the prices quoted by the contractors for houses are too expensive, and that they can build their own house for the same amount of money that it cost their parents – a good 15-20 years ago. When older adults point out that the initial groundwork is extremely expensive, especially if you need to have a bulldozer and other heavy equipment come out just for your work, they ignore this advice.  Then they take a plot, have an architect draw up the plans, start to do some serious research, and find out that it really is expensive to build on your own. Then they stop. Meanwhile, they are living in caravans and not progressing with their building. Since it is illegal for us to bring new caravans out, they are taking up room that could be used for new families to move in (we have a waiting list of at least 30 families).

At this point, because of the situation, we have only accepted new families to the yishuv with at least three children already (since they are usually more serious about building, and are usually in better financial circumstances than newly married couples). This has caused some friction with families with newly married children who want to live by us. They resent the fact that families from the outside take precedence when a caravan becomes available before children of residents.

We don’t have the luxury of time. We have the permits to grow to 350 families, (we are now about 200, ken yirbu) and we need to take advantage of that.  As much as we complain about this building freeze – at least it is defined by a set amount of time. If the government were left wing it would be permanent.