Shas threatens to quit coalition over housing shortage

Interior Minister Eli Yishai says Shas will leave the government if the housing shortage is not addressed.

Shas chairman Minister of Interior Eli Yishai today threatened on "Voice of Israel Radio" that the party would quit the government if it did not approve a plan for addressing the housing shortage by increasing the supply of homes.

Yishai said, "I look young couples in the eye and say, 'If I and the Ministry of Housing and Construction submit a range of measures to the government which are not passed by the cabinet and the Knesset, I see no point in continuing to sit in this government, which is incapable of providing a solution for the next generation."

In a few weeks, Yishai and his Shas colleague Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias will submit a series of measures to the cabinet aimed at solving the housing shortage. Measures include a three-month fast-track approval process for contractors who promise to set aside a certain proportion of apartments for poor young couples, fast-track approval for plans to retrofit buildings against earthquakes under National Outline Plan 38, and the possibility of transferring building percentages between projects.

Yishai said that these proposals were stuck and that Shas would not hesitate to force a coalition crisis unless the cabinet approved them.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 6, 2011

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011

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