The affair in Kibbutz Ha-On: The state will market lands for dozens of villas on the Sea of Galilee
Following the compromise reached between the parties at the end of 2025, the Authority is expected to hold a lottery for 73 additional plots of land.
The Israel Land Authority (ILA) tender in Kibbutz Ha-On is considered one of the most publicized tenders of 2025 and the two preceding years. It began with the marketing of land for those lacking housing, continued with mutual accusations between the Emek HaYarden Regional Council and the ILA, and concerns that the 'cream of the crop' youth from Tel Aviv would take over the lands in the Sea of Galilee area and turn the kibbutz into a vacation home.
In a year where the number of lands marketed for high-density construction (outside the framework of the 'Target Price' program) is decreasing, the opportunity for a benefit worth millions in purchasing land in a prestigious kibbutz is opening up. The ILA tender for the marketing of 171 plots on the kibbutz lands, where about half of the winners are reservists, reached a compromise at the end of 2025. It was decided that the ILA would fund the evacuation and demolition at the complex, while development works amounting to almost 100 million shekels would be partially funded by it, and at the same time, it would slow down the pace of marketing.
On the other hand, the Council will be a partner in promoting the process and will not try to stop it. At the same time, about 80 reservists who won land claimed that the ILA changed the lease agreement and took for itself, contrary to the agreement in the tender booklet, future rights that it could demand from the lessees.
Meanwhile, the ILA announced this week that another tender for the construction of 25 additional housing units in the complex, which was postponed after it was supposed to take place this month, will take place in December. In doing so, it is fulfilling its part of the compromise agreement: slowing the pace but continuing to market lands.
Another tender, for the marketing of 48 housing units in Ha-On, is supposed to take place at the end of the current month; however, the tender booklet has not yet been published, and we would not be surprised if this tender is also postponed to another date towards the end of the year. The two tenders together, for the construction of 73 housing units, are very significant for the continued development of the kibbutz.
The parties decided to appoint a project manager who will deal with building the new community that will be established in the settlement. At the ILA, they estimate that the tenders will get underway this year, after the Council committed to removing planning barriers in order to bring the project to fruition.
Today, the plots in Ha-On are used for student housing and, as mentioned, the ILA will evacuate these houses at its own expense. The agreement states that some of the plots will be marketed within 3-5 years; however, it seems that this will happen much sooner. The Council stopped the promotion of the planning procedure it had opened, which could have significantly delayed the work at the complex.
