Our firm is representing and accompanying Liberica Ashkelon Investments and Development in Real Estate Ltd., a subsidiary of Shapir Engineering, in a lengthy legal battle to establish a cement factory in the city of Ashkelon.

The proceeding commenced with the refusal of Ashkelon’s Local Building and Planning Committee to provide a building permit for Shapir’s cement factory, after the company purchased land for this purpose at the cost of tens of millions of Israeli shekels.

Our firm’s Building and Planning department submitted an appeal against the Committee decision to the District Appeals Committee, which instructed the Local Committee to issue a building permit for the cement factory.

During the course of proceedings with the District Appeals Committee, the Local Committee promoted a planning change for the entire industrial zone, while approaching the Southern District Committee requesting that is act upon its authority and publish notifications of a building freeze according to sections 77 and 78 of the Building and Planning Law, in order to prevent issue of the building permit for the cement factory.

The Southern District Committee discussed the Local Committee’s plan, and despite the District Appeals Committee decision to approve the company’s request, and despite the company’s objection, decided to impose immediate building restrictions on the entire industrial zone, including on the company’s land – and thereby prevented it from being able to receive the building permit for the cement factory.

We submitted an appeal on behalf of the company against the District Committee decision to the National Council for Building and Planning.

The National Council Appeals Committee determined in its decision, that it had unanimously decided to accept the appeal in part, and to determine that the company be excluded from the restricting conditions, on considerations of individual justice mainly being the significant injury to the company’s reliant interests, and after having concluded that establishment of the cement factory would not sabotage the plan being promoted by the Local Committee for the industrial zone.

The National Council’s Appeals Committee determined that the major reasoning of the Local Committee focused on there being no need for another cement factory and not for fear of sabotaging the plan, and is therefore a personal reason in many aspects, and even vexatious.

Liberica Ashkelon Investments and Development in Real Estate Ltd was represented by the firm’s partners Adv. Yacov Cohen, head of the Building and Planning Department, and Adv. Liat Volanovsky Neuman, a partner in the department,