Knesset grapples with Israeli housing crisis

THE Knesset will hold an emergency meeting on Israel’s housing crisis following nationwide protests around Israel, including a tent city in Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on the protesters to bring their demonstrations to Jerusalem in order to help him pass land reform and a bill calling for the formation of national housing committees, which he said will “bring about a genuine start of the housing solution.”

“I am aware of the rent crisis.  I am certainly aware of the housing crisis.  The Government is doing things here to repair this blight that has vexed the State of Israel for many years.  We are a small country.  We have a very large demand for apartments, both for purchase and for rental, and there are not enough apartments.  There are not enough apartments because we have two insane bureaucracies that prevent the planning and marketing of apartments; today, it takes more than five years to plan an apartment in Israel.  We are now attacking these two things,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

An emergency discussion of the Knesset on the housing crisis will take place on Monday.

Over the weekend, hundreds of protesters set up a tent city of more than three dozen tents in central Tel Aviv, saying they will not leave until the government announces a solution to the high cost of housing, particularly in Tel Aviv. Other protesters on Sunday began setting up tent cities in other communities across the country. The protest originated on Facebook, much like a recent successful campaign against the high cost of cottage cheese.

JTA