Last week the Israel Land Administration approved the controversial criteria for affordable housing proposed by Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias. While the criteria gave priority to those who serve in the IDF, length of marriage and families with three children or more, working income was not taken into account.
A debate today in the Knesset's Economics Committee gave the social protest leaders an opportunity to vent their anger.
National Student Union chairman Itzik Shmuli stressed that housing is at the core of the social protest. He said, "They tricked us. They are waving at us and decorating the criteria with military service but the working population is being discriminated against. To come and say that the government is coping with the solution to the housing problem with clean hands is untrue. It is a closing down sale of the State of Israel."
Threatening to reignite the camp protests of the summer, Shmuli added, "We will go out onto the streets again if there is no affordable housing solution."
Protest leader Dafni Leef said, "Housing is a basic matter not something to have to fight for. Every day young people are leaving Israel. The country is already split in half and there is already a deep rift between the secular and haredim (ultra-orthodox). There criteria perpetuate that there are first class and second class citizens."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 6, 2012
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