The contrast is striking.
A short drive north from Caesarea sits the coastal town of Jisr al-Zarka, one of the poorest locations in Israel, full of potholed roads, rundown buildings, and a sleepy, undeveloped port and beach. It doesn’t even have an exit off the main coastal highway. Instead, if you want to enter the town, you need to take a turn off the nearby Road 4 and drive under a short tunnel that is so narrow, only one direction can go at a time.
Within the town, and in eyesight of the port, however, the brand-new, shiny white buildings of the Turquoise Project are now being finished. Developed by Geshem Holdings, the apartments are new and modern; some are just 100 meters from the sea. It signifies a coming influx of Jewish Israelis into this Arab town, attracted by relatively low prices and access to the Mediterranean Sea.
So far, there are 27 buildings, each four floors high, with a total of 196 units in the new neighborhood called Jisr al-Zarka West. Most of the apartments belong to the Mekhir Hamestaken program, a lottery-based, government-sponsored program to encourage Israelis to buy in more remote areas.
All of these have now been sold, for prices starting at NIS 701,000, a steal by Israeli standards. The penthouses, which also come with a view of the sea and are much larger, start at NIS 4 million. In contrast, a penthouse in the Tel Aviv port recently sold for NIS 36 million, according to Globes.
Eventually, the neighborhood will grow to 522 housing units, along with 115 hotel rooms, a camping site, and a surfing school.
“The profile of the buyer in the Turquoise project is quite diverse,” a spokesman for Geshem Holdings said in a written statement. “A significant number are investors, but there is also a major number of buyers who wish to live in the location and come from outside the settlement. Locals are also showing interest, although in smaller numbers compared to outside buyers.”
Geshem Holdings adds, “One of the critical aspects of the project is the development of its infrastructure. Currently being built are public spaces, commercial spaces on the boardwalk along the beach, clinics, public buildings for religious purposes, as well as schools, kindergartens, and daycare centers.”
Some of the buyers are from abroad, including Rabbi Stewart Weinblatt, who recently retired as the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Tzedek, a 600-family Conservative synagogue in Potomac, Maryland. He said he and his wife were looking for an apartment on the beach and heard about the Turquoise Project; they recently spent some time in their new home over the summer.
“I was able to walk to a synagogue in Caesarea in just 15 minutes,” he told The Jerusalem Post by phone from Potomac. “While we were in the apartment, there was a kind of block party, and we met all kinds of people who have bought apartments there.”
Will Jisr al-Zarka's Arab residents benefit from the new neighborhood?
HOWEVER, IT’S NOT clear how much the residents of Jisr al-Zarka itself will benefit from the new neighborhood. Originally an Arab fishing village, Jisr al-Zarka today has about 16,000 residents and is one of the poorest towns in Israel. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 80% of the residents live below the poverty line. It is the only Arab town located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
“This neighborhood was supposed to offer a solution to young people in Jisr al-Zarka who don’t own land,” said Caesar Yeudkin of Bimkom, an NGO that deals with housing issues in Israel. “But the housing ministry decided to sell them on the open market, and mostly people from outside bought them.”
The head of the local council agreed.
“Most people in Jisr al-Zarka can’t afford to buy apartments there,” Murad Amash said in an interview in his office. “Most people work in menial jobs, like as cleaners in Caesarea. We need to build more kindergartens and schools here as well as more housing.”
He noted that unemployment is high, and those who do work earn only about half the national average wage. He also said that it has one of the highest high school dropout rates in Israel; in 2020, 23% of high school students graduated, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Amash said that Israel has ignored Jisr al-Zarka for many years, and needs to overhaul the education system. In addition, he said, Jisr al-Zarka does not have enough room to grow.
“It’s surrounded by wealthy Jewish towns, state-initiated natural reserves, the sea, and a major highway,” he said. “We want the government to give us more room to build and expand.”
Adalah, an NGO working for civil equality, is urging the Housing Ministry to market more units to the local population.
“The case of Jisr Az-Zarqa illustrates the severe housing crises faced by overcrowded, densely populated Arab towns and villages in Israel,” Adalah attorney Myssana Morany said. “After years, during which no plans were prepared and housing units were marketed in the village, only a few residents have benefited from the limited number of housing units that have been offered recently in Jisr al-Zarqa.
“This situation necessitates the adoption of various measures suitable for Jisr al-Zarqa, and Arab villages in general, in order to address the residents’ housing shortage and to provide affordable housing solutions, including public housing.”
Local council head Amash agreed. “Israel cannot continue to ignore the basic needs of the residents of Jisr al-Zarqa, which has been suffering from severe problems in all areas since the establishment of the state,” he said.
“The plans for the new neighborhoods were intended, first and foremost, to solve the housing shortage in the village. However, the remaining land available for residents will be allocated to those who do not reside in the village. This is done in the poorest village in the country, while ignoring the plight of the residents. The plans must be adapted to the residents’ needs before the damage becomes irreversible.”
THE VILLAGE is surrounded by three Jewish towns: Beit Hanania to the east, Ma’agan Michael to the north, and Caesarea, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hometown, to the south. Local residents here say they owned some of these lands in the past, but they were expropriated after the 1948 founding of Israel.
In Arab society, a young man cannot get married until he has an apartment to offer his new bride. Therefore, many young couples simply build without permits, often on the roof of their parents’ home, making both homes possible targets for Israeli demolition, having been built illegally.
Like many Arab localities, Jisr al-Zarqa has a high crime rate. In the last two months, four young people from the village were killed: two were apparently in a rivalry between criminal gangs, one young woman was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and another young woman was found dead with no explanation.
But some people from Jisr al-Zarka are taking steps to help their village. Manal Jorban has been a nurse at the local Kupat Holim for 25 years and recently received certification as a lactation consultant as well. She said that when she started working at Kupat Holim, there were no doctors from Jisr al-Zarka. Now, two of the doctors come from the community.
“We do have a problem with crime here,” she acknowledged in an interview in her living room. “But I was born here and grew up here. I think the solution is better education for the young people. Then we can work together to help build the town.”
She is also a member of several Jewish-Arab women’s groups that work to break down barriers and empower women.
Naama Goldman Shwartz, a Jewish activist who helped run the guesthouse in Jisr al-Zarka, says Arab women in Israel face unique challenges.
“The Jewish population feels freer to move around Israel and around the world,” she said. “It’s easier for us to get a foreign passport. The Arab population is a lot more limited and feels a lot less welcome in many areas.”
In addition, she said that when women marry, they often move to the husband’s town or village, so women often lack social connections. She has started several groups with women from Jisr al-Zarka called Walking Together. Almost every week, the women take walks together in nature and forge deep connections.
But so far, that cooperation does not extend to the new and old residents of Jisr al-Zarka who live in two separate worlds, as close as they may be.
At the same time, the Geshem Holdings company, which is constructing the new neighborhood, predicts that in the long run, the new neighborhood will bring more money, enabling everyone in Jisr al-Zarka to benefit.