The treasury has formulated its criteria for eligibly for apartment buyers wishing to take advantage of the new no value added tax policy. While there were objections, Finance Minister Yair Lapid has pushed through the plan which discriminates against residents who do not serve in the IDF for one of the criteria is military service. This will primarily impact the chareidi and Arab communities.
The plan now enjoys the approval of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. It appears Lapid persuaded him there is no cause for legal concerns regarding his plan for Lapid is tenacious in his belief to offer incentive and rewards to citizens serving in the IDF or an approved national service program.
Weinstein gave his stamp of approval on Sunday, 11 Iyar, which will permit eligible couples to purchase their first apartment without paying 18% value added tax, a significant savings. Weinstein did add that for those who did not serve, they may still enjoy a VAT free apartment homes selling for less than 600,000 shekels. Housing Ministry officials responding to Weinstein’s stipulation state there are no such apartments in Israel.
Housing Minister (Bayit Yehudi) Uri Ariel announced that while he supports giving perks to veterans of the IDF and national service, he opposes totally ignoring the needs of segments of the society who do not serve. He adds the 600,000 shekel ceiling for apartments for these sectors is “not realistic” and that figure must be increased to 950,000 shekels.
In response to shouts of discrimination, Lapid stated “we will not apologize for being Zionists”.
The new criteria for eligibility for a VAT free apartment include:
Ø A veteran of IDF or national service
Ø Married with at least one child
Ø A single parent with custody for at least one child
Ø A couple without children if one partner has reached 35
Ø A single person 35 or older
Ø A person with at least 75% disability rating from Bituach Leumi
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
7 Responses
The US and many states restrict certain benefits to veterans, including a no-money-down home mortgage program. Why is this a problem for Israel to do this?
The Israeli Supreme Court has held that preferences for veterans constitute illegal discrimination against Arabs and Hareidim. The ban on veterans benefits (which are a large part of the total compensation American soldiers) is one reason Israel relies on conscription rather than volunteers/professionals for its military.
Without a constitutional amendment (not that big a deal in Israel), Israel can’t offer veterans special benefits. It would be in our interests to support a policy that allows veterans benefits, and ends conscription.
This government is illegitimate if one individual has the power to make decisions unilaterally.
Not pleasant for charedim, but this is what we expected would happen, financial incentives to serve, not criminal charges.
There is Nachal chareidi and plenty of charedi oriented national service organizations so it’s ridiculous to say that this proposal discriminates against charedim. From an economic perspective the proposal is stupid and will not reduce housing prices in the long term for anyone. But to say it discriminates against charedim is something that only someone with a warped sense of reality could actually believe. The country is entitled to set terms and conditions of benefits to be tied to public service requirements.
Major perks should be for combat veterans.
Why when someone is given on the job training and little work, which is the case for most “jobnikim” positions, should such high perks be given..true some sort of compensation should be given for any national service but why such a big discrepancy between these and other people, hareidim with large families. It seems that the present government, with Lapid leading the way, places no value on the importance of increasing the Jewish population. Hareidim do it with very little of the luxuries that most Israelis consider essential. Why is the traditional Jewish value of raising many Jewish children being belittled for the sake of a high economy. Nothing good will come from this, HKBH have rachmanis, please.
to charliehall who said “The US and many states restrict certain benefits to veterans, including a no-money-down home mortgage program. Why is this a problem for Israel to do this?” — The Israeli Supreme Court under “equal protection” theory usually objects to veterans’ benefits on the theory they discriminate against Arabs and hareidim. Lapid is probably acting illegally. It would take a “Basic law” to change that (which can be done quite easily if they want – it requires only 61 votes in the Kenesset).