The Knesset’s finance committee voted on Thursday to approve a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allocate state funding to cover the cost of housing the Netanyahu family’s two private residences and purchase items such as clothing. Increased funding for expenses, foreign travel for the Premier’s wife Sarah, conferences and other state events, staff recruitment, and hospitality costs.
The motion, which passed 9-4, was followed by a stormy committee discussion It lasted two days and the relatively rare Knesset action took place on Thursday.
According to reports, the state was requested to finance a clothing budget of NIS 45,000–80,000 ($12,000–22,000) per year for Netanyahu and members of his family, to cover travel costs for the premier’s wife Sarah Netanyahu. cover, and allow the family to rent another staff member – for a total of four – for their official residence. The family had asked the state to cover the cost of hosting for an as yet undisclosed amount.
Netanyahu’s office presented the funds as urgently needed in light of the ongoing renovation of the prime minister’s official residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, while the opposition MK sought to isolate the government and cut off the public. Served by fast-tracking funding. for the premier while citizens face rising inflation and rising cost of living.
The request pertains to Netanyahu’s residence on Jerusalem’s Gaza Street and the family home in the affluent coastal city of Caesarea.
The Gaza Street Residence is located in a residential neighborhood of central Jerusalem and not adjacent to the Prime Minister’s Office, which is in the Government Quarter near the city’s western entrance.
View of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence on Azza (Gaza) Street in Jerusalem on January 18, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash 90)
Netanyahu asked the committee to recognize the family home on Gaza Street as the prime minister’s official residence, while repairs and security upgrades continue at Balfour Street. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the process is expected to take at least two more years.
Reports on Wednesday said Netanyahu’s office had asked Likud MPs and MKs of the parties in the governing coalition to attend the committee’s discussions in support of the prime minister’s requests.
Moshe Gafni, head of the Knesset Finance Committee, leads a committee meeting in Jerusalem, February 23, 2023. (Jonathan Sindel/Flash90)
Before the vote, opposition Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Belyak tore up his copy of the request, saying he was “ashamed to be part of the committee.”
“Two months have passed since this government was formed, [the prices of] Electricity and water have gone up, interest rates have been raised twice, food prices continue to rise, day care will become more expensive, and what follows – the coalition has agreed to discuss and immediately approve the Netanyahu family’s funding requests. decided,” he said.
National Unity MK Yifat Shasha-Biton said: “There are rocket to the south, strike in local councilsThe the shekel is falling And inflation is already here. But coalition members are living in a parallel universe… launching an emergency discussion on doubling the budget for clothes, makeup and other luxuries for the prime minister and his wife.”
MK Vladimir Beliak, left, and Moshe Tur-Paz at a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee in Jerusalem, February 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Leader of the opposition Yair Lapid tweeted that the government had decided that “no money is available to subsidize daycare, but there is money for two prime ministerial residences.”
During the first part of the debate on Wednesday, Yossi Sheli, director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, argued that the state needed to provide the prime minister with an official residence and that Netanyahu’s decision to stay at the house on Gaza Street would cost him. State the same as any other alternate residence designated as official.
Shelley said the request asks that state fund expenditures on both residences through 2026 “under the working assumption that by then a new residence will be [at Balfour Street]And we’ll go back to normal process.
Another PMO official cited an existing 1982 law that says the state must provide for a prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem and an alternative residence for the head of state’s household outside the capital, and explained that Demand [in Hebrew] Asks the committee to treat Netanyahu’s private residence on Gaza Street in Jerusalem as an official residence while also maintaining the house in Caesarea.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea. (video screenshot)
The PMO said there was a “fake news” campaign around the “so-called demands” which, it argues, “fade in comparison”. NIS 45 million ($12 million) that former prime minister Naftali Bennett reportedly spent on repairs to his private home in Ravana” and Lapid and Bennett’s “finalisation” of the official residence at Balfour as the prime minister’s residence. failure”.
Balfour has resided Undergoing long overdue repairs and security updates As Netanyahu walks out after leaving office in July 2021.
Due to ongoing work on the official residence, Bennett spent most of his time in office living in his maternal grandmother’s home. there the terror of his neighbors – during lapid lived in a small apartment Inside the Prime Minister’s Complex.
Earlier this month, Haaretz daily reported that the Prime Minister’s Office estimated that ongoing renovations on the Balfour residence would cost between NIS 80 and 100 million ($25-30 million) and take another year to complete. Can
