Betar Illit Mayor Meir Rubinstein has come out publicly against Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for their “unprecedented policy”, freezing all construction in his community. R’ Rubinstein’s remarks come after the government announced it will approve 455 housing units, none of which located in Betar. The mayor decried the situation, questioning how the prime minister and defense minister can strangle the community which is plagued with a critical housing shortage.

Rubinstein concurred with Settlement Council official Pinchas Wallerstein, who called the government’s announced a bluff, explaining the ‘approved’ housing units were approved in the past, so in actuality, there are no new housing units as officials claim. The mayor added that during the Olmert administration, 286 housing units were approved in his city, still under construction, and since the current administration moved into place, not a single housing unit has been approved.

R’ Rubinstein explains that his city is slated for 10,000 units, and this is a matter of fact, but this administration has become the first to totally halt construction, at a time when the shortage of housing in the chareidi sector is the worst it has ever been. He adds that now, during the depressed economic situation, a construction boom would also revitalize the economy, providing tens of thousands of jobs in the construction sector, which is also feeling the economic crunch.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)