MK Moses
MK MosesIsrael news photo: Flash 90

MK Rabbi Menachem Eliezer Moses, Chairman of the United Torah Judaism party, spoke Wednesday against the freeze on construction in Judea and Samaria announced Sunday by the government which UTJ is a part of. He called the freeze “a disengagement from building.”

Speaking in the Knesset, MK Moses said that the freeze is causing direct financial damage and other suffering to citizens who invested their savings in building starts in Modiin Illit, Beitar Illit and other communities in Judea and Samaria.

MK Moses explained that numerous citizens who did nothing wrong and bought an unfinished apartment or a plot, or took a mortgage – find themselves unable to continue building. In the next ten months, he said, they will be forced to pay a double tax: both mortgage payments and rent for the apartment they are residing in.

“Why are they to blame?” he asked rhetorically. “Who sent them there? Did they settle there illegally? All of these thousands of people purchased the land with their savings. Some have already begun laying the foundations but have yet to finish the job because of topographic conditions. What will be done with those? And what about all of the suppliers, subcontractors, advisers, architects who have already become involved in the matter?”

"Above all,” MK Moses said, “there is the matter of bank financing. When the banks see the government zigging and zagging and deciding on ten months of non-construction, a disengagement from construction, what do they decide? Not to finance.”

The rabbi and Knesset member also mentioned families with 10 or 12 children “who were living in a three bedroom apartment and decided to enlarge the apartment. Now, with the freeze orders, they cannot.”

MKs Moses and Makleb therefore announced that they would be presenting a bill for compensation of all those who suffered direct or indirect damage from the building freeze.