MKs up in arms over report minister sold public housing

Lawmakers across the board urged Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein Wednesday to forbid Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel from overseeing sales of state property. The outrage followed a report that Ariel’s ministry had sold off dozens of apartments designated for public housing at a fraction of their list price to various religious and academic institutions.

Yisrael Beytenu MK Orly Levy-Abekasis forwarded the attorney general several documents, first published by Channel 2 News on Tuesday, which allegedly implicate Ariel for assisting individuals and organizations affiliated with his Jewish Home party to purchase apartments, often without issuing tenders for the housing units.

“There are many who benefit from this story,” Levy-Abekasis told Channel 2. “But once again, the only losers are the tenants of public housing. It’s hard to describe how grave an issue this is, how terrible and nasty.”

The report listed several instances in which the Housing and Construction Ministry appeared to have sold state property at a reduced price. In one such case, a hesder yeshiva in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona purchased seven apartments for a meager NIS 227,000 ($58,370), though a single housing unit in the area would typically cost nearly a third more. In another case, also in Kiryat Shmona, 16 apartments were sold to a youth group for NIS 51,000 ($13,115) apiece.

In Beersheba, the ministry offered the Ben Gurion University of the Negev 53 apartments, each for NIS 66,000, while in the southern city of Dimona, 14 housing units were sold to a local religious organization, the report stated, noting that tenders were not issued in either case.

“Attorney General Weinstein must immediately prohibit the minister from engaging in any sale of public housing,” Meretz MK Ilan Gilon said Wednesday.

“This sectorial minister turned the dwindling reserves of housing into a profitable operation for his inner circle, and an inexhaustible source of solicitation and bribery,” Gilon continued. “We must immediately halt the allocation of apartments, return the properties that were sold and launch an investigation at once.”

Former finance minister Yair Lapid criticized Ariel as well, accusing him of thwarting any real chance at solving the country’s ongoing housing crisis.

“For the last two years I have been working like a dog to drive down housing prices, and the Jewish Home party has found a magic solution — simply hand out apartments to friends at your expense,” he said.

Last week, the cabinet approved an affordable housing plan that aims to lower housing prices in sought-after areas of the country. The so-called target-pricing plan is projected to reduce the price of some apartments to 20 percent below the current market price.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.