Rachel
Hirshfeld
ARUTZ SHEVA
The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of
a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex,
oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv.
“Expected to take more than two years to build, at a cost of up to
$100 million, the facility is to have classrooms on Level 1, an auditorium on
Level 3, a laboratory, shock-resistant doors, protection from nonionizing
radiation and very tight security. Clearances will be required for all
construction workers, guards will be at the fence and barriers will separate
it from the rest of the base,” The Washington Post reported.
Security
concerns at the site are so great that non-Israeli employees hired by the
builder can come only from “the U.S., Canada, Western Europe countries,
Poland, Moldavia, Thailand, Philippines, Venezuela, Romania and China,”
according to a Corps notice.
“The employment of Palestinians is also
forbidden,” it says.
According to security regulations, the site
“shall have one gate only for both entering and exiting” and “no exit or
entrance to the site shall be allowed during work hours except for supply
trucks." Guards will be Israeli citizens with experience in the Israeli air
force. Also, “the collection of information of any type whatsoever related to
base activities is prohibited.”
According to The Washington Post the
Corps also offered a “lengthy description” of the mezuzas the contractor is to
provide “for each door or opening exclusive of toilets or shower rooms” in the
Site 911 building.
The Corps notes that the mezuzas “shall be written
in inerasable ink, on . . . uncoated
leather parchment” and be handwritten by a scribe “holding a written
authorization according to Jewish law.” The writing may be “Ashkenazik or
Sepharadik” but “not a mixture” and “must be uniform.”
It ads that the
mezuazs “shall be proof-read by a computer at an authorized institution for
Mezuzah inspection, as well as manually proof-read for the form of the letters
by a proof-reader authorized by the Chief Rabbinate."
Furthermore, all
mezuzas for the facility “shall be affixed by the Base’s Rabbi or his
appointed representative and not by the contractor staff.”
Site 911 is
the latest in a long history of military construction projects the United
States has undertaken for the IDF under the U.S. Foreign Military Sales
program.
The 1998 Wye River Memorandum between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority led to about $500 million in U.S. construction of
military facilities for the Jewish state, most of which were initially based
in an undeveloped part of the Negev Desert.
According to Corps
publication, over the years it has built underground hangars for Israeli
fighter-bombers, facilities for handling nuclear weapons (though Israel does
not admit having such weapons), command centers, training bases, intelligence
facilities and simulators.
The Pentagon on Tuesday inquired into the
purpose of the mysterious Site 911, but the Corps said on Wednesday said
that only an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman could provide an answer, The
Washington Post
reported.
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