Minister of Industry, Trade, and Labor Eli Yishai, the chairman of Shas, said Tuesday that his party would back a major construction project in the Kidmat Tzion neighborhood of Jerusalem. Kidmat Tzion is a Jewish-owned area near the Old City surrounded by Arab neighborhoods.
Yishai expressed support for the construction of 800 new housing units, 100 units in response to the death of each young yeshiva student murdered last week in a terrorist shooting in the city. Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has given his blessing to the project, Yishai said.