MK Stav Shafir (Labor) criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday over the increased spending at the Prime Minister’s Residence. Shafir was not convinced by Netanyahu’s attorney’s argument that the Prime Minister lives a modest life and has spent more primarily because he is working hard even from home.
“The public outrage and criticism is not over any particular sum that the Prime Minister spent, but over something much deeper: the disturbing feeling, shared by most of Israel’s citizens, that their leaders have lost their connection with real life,” Shafir said.
Shafir, who formerly organized “social justice” rallies over the cost of living, accused Netanyahu of having a “capricious, hedonistic lifestyle.” His spending “indicates that he has forgotten what life looks like for an average civilian,” she accused.
She criticized Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid as well. “Netanyahu, like his Finance Minister, Lapid, apparently does not know how much milk costs at the supermarket, does not remember what a bus looks like from the inside, and meets the middle class, at best, on Facebook,” she said.
“Someone who thinks that spending 64,000 shekels on makeup – the annual salary for a teacher – is ‘symbolic,’ simply cannot understand the implications of increasing the VAT or income tax for most Israelis,” she concluded.