Netanyahu hammered for inaction in wake of housing report

Politicians traded accusations over who was responsible for Israel’s housing crisis and vowed to fix the problem Wednesday evening, in the wake of a state report that placed the blame for runaway housing costs squarely on government agencies.

The report painted a stark picture of a stifling bureaucracy and political gridlock that led to the shortages driving home prices up by 55% between 2008 and December 2013.

“This is a very important report,” officials from the ruling Likud party said in a statement. “We will study the report and implement the necessary conclusions.”

Much of the criticism following the report was aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was accused of inaction as he held power for four out of the five years studied.

Netanyahu, while vowing to address the recommendations in the report after returning to office following elections, cautioned against losing sight of what really matters: Iran’s nuclear program.

“We’re talking about housing prices and cost of living. I do not forget about life itself, living,” he said. “The greatest challenge standing before us and our lives as Israeli citizens and of this state is the threat of Iran being armed with a nuclear weapon.”

While Netanyahu has focused on the Iranian threat in campaigning ahead of elections on March 17, politicians in the opposition have looked to highlight failings on economic issues, and will likely use the report to notch points against the prime minister.

“Mr. Economy is not Mr. Economy, but he is Mr. Crisis,” Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir, one of the leaders of the 2011 cost of living protests, said of Netanyahu in a press conference in Tel Aviv after the report was released. “We do not need a report to tell us this; everyone feels it in their pockets.”

Zionist Union Chairman Isaac Herzog blamed Netanyahu for the stagnation in housing construction across the country.

“[Netanyahu] did not do anything in the housing sector, and Israeli residents are tired of hearing about the fights and the shifting of responsibilities between the minister of finance or the minister of housing and the prime minister,” Herzog said, according to Israel Radio.

Fellow Zionist Union candidate MK Itzik Shmuli pointed a finger at former finance minister Yair Lapid, who, Shmuli claimed, had failed to deliver his promise of lowering housing prices.

“You stole seats in the last election when presenting yourself as a supporter of the social protests, but failed to provide a solution,” Shmuli said. “You are an essential part of the problem.”

Likud officials chose not to focus on the rising housing prices, and instead highlighted the prime minister’s achievements and efforts to curb the rise in apartment prices.

Likud “increased the amount of construction from 32,000 [housing units] to 47,000 a year,” the Likud statement read. “We have increased dramatically the marketing of land for housing, and this year we will have reached 60,000 units. We have canceled the decision that prevents new construction in the center of the country, and this year, we will plan an additional 80,000 units.”

Representatives from the Interior Ministry, which was singled out in the report for a lack of coordination and other failings, echoed the Likud’s official statement, pointing to statistics which showed an increase in the approval of construction sites across the country. The ministry is headed by Likud’s Gilad Erdan.

“Comparative data shows a significant increase in the number of housing units approved by planning institutions,” a statement released by the ministry read. “For example, in 2011 planning institutions approved a mere 33,000 units, and in 2012 the process of dealing with housing plans was significantly shortened, so that in 2012 64,000 units were approved, in 2013 75,000, and in 2014 64,000. The goal for 2015 is 80,000 units.”

Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) urged in a statement that State Comptroller Yosef Shapira expedite the publication of an updated report that includes the term of the outgoing government.

“The comptroller’s report proves that Housing Minister Uri Ariel and the Jewish Home party correctly identified the failures [cited in the report] when they came into office, and knew how to act to correct the damage of past years,” a Jewish Home statement insisted.

During Ariel’s term, the statement said, housing starts rose to an unprecedented 50,000 units in 2014, up from some 30,000 per year in previous years.

The discrepancy between the figures could not be immediately accounted for.

Former finance minister Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, said the report proved that Netanyahu had failed to tackle the housing crisis until 2013, when a special cabinet committee was appointed to deal with the issue.

“The housing crisis in Israel is a direct result of Netanyahu and the Likud ignoring the issue. Years of procrastination, inaction and corruption caused house prices to increase outrageously,” he said in a statement.

The Kulanu party, headed by former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon, said the report was unneeded since Israelis already knew the situation was “catastrophic.”

He also gave a “failing grade” to the policies of Netanyahu, Lapid and Jewish Home leader and Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, though Lapid was not in politics before 2013, Bennett was in the opposition and Kahlon himself was a government minister during the period in the study.

The Shas party, which has campaigned on bread and butter economic issues, said the report proved that the crisis was the result of “amateurish management and irresponsibility.”

A spokesperson for former prime minister Ehud Olmert, whose last year in power overlapped with the first year of the report, deflected blame and said prices had gone down during his term.

“For Netanyahu, like always, everyone is to blame but the one who has been prime minister for six years already,” Olmert said.