UTJ politicians recently spoke to the Israeli Yated Ne’eman of Israel’s critical housing shortage and what should be done about it.
MK Moshe Gafni said there was still no real solution to the problem. Plans to improve matters were still half baked and inapplicable. The situation was worsened by the government behaving as if it had no accountability and shunting responsibility onto the private sector. Half of what people pay for their exorbitant apartments was actually government taxes, Gafni noted, adding that the Viznitzer Rebbe and Chevron rosh yeshiva Rav Dovid Cohen told him that the situation bordered on pikuach nefesh.
MK Yaakov Asher said in the Yated interview that at least 6,000 chareidi couples marry every year, yet only a few hundred new apartments are made available for the sector on an annual basis.
Although the government promised to build more chareidi projects and mayors were encouraged to earmark sections of new building projects for chareidim, who comprise about twenty percent of the population, little of this was implemented so far.
MK Uri Maklev threatened that chareidim would boycott Knesset votes on housing issues if the situation did not improve.
“We do not intend to bring down the government and not to vote in critical issues,” he said, “but in matters pertaining to housing we will not vote.”
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
H’ blessed us with Trump , it’s time to build.Beitar Illit ,Maale Amos and other charedi towns and villages in Judea and Samaria should double or triple in size!
Chareidim deserve to live in safe parts of the country, centrally located, not only past the Green Line where their safety is compromised and they are forced to live far from their families, community facilities, adequate medical care, poor public transportation, etc, just like the secular population!