Cabinet votes to advance building new Jerusalem combined office/residence for premier

The cabinet has voted in favor of speeding up the timetable to build a new combined office and residence for the prime minister inside the government compound in Jerusalem, instead of completing renovations on the existing official Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, according to Hebrew media reports.

The official residence is currently located in a residential neighborhood of central Jerusalem and is not adjacent to the Prime Minister’s Office, which is in the government quarter near the city’s Western entrance.

The new project, known colloquially as the “Israeli White House,” is expected to cost hundreds of millions of shekels, and would take some seven years to be completed, according to Haaretz.

Plans for a single compound that will house the Israeli prime minister’s dwelling and offices have intermittently been considered for long years, but have been frozen, time and again, for various reasons.

In April, the State Comptroller’s Office released a report slamming a decade of inefficiency and delays in renovating the official Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, which has led to tens of millions of shekels being spent on securing private homes for successive prime ministers.

Haaretz adds that a steering committee will be appointed to oversee planning on the project, which will be submitted for cabinet approval in the next year and a half.