MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union), a resident of Ganei Tal in the Gush Katif region of Gaza that is slated for expulsion this summer, said the government is using the plan as a pretext for pumping money into kibbutzim located in the western Negev.
Hendel said the Housing Ministry, led by Minister Yaakov Herzog (Labor), was set to start spending millions of shekels to improve the infrastructure of the largely left wing-identified kibbutzim in order to provide temporary housing for Jewish refugees from Gush Katif.
A ministerial committee set up to devise temporary housing solutions for the refugees has already approved the construction of such housing, Hendel said, without going through the normal procedure of submitting the proposal to a public tender.
The main catch is, however, that the Gush Katif residents are not at all interested in living in the kibbutzim.
Hendel accused the Housing Minister of corruption reminiscent of the days when Mapai, the forerunner of the Labor party, used to funnel large sums of money to prop up institutions such as the kibbutzim, whose residents generally voted for the Labor party.
Hendel said that there was no logic in spending billions of shekels on temporary housing in secular kibbutzim that would be of no interest to virtually any residents of Gush Katif, almost all of whom are religious.
“[Disengagement Authority head] Yonatan Bassi and Housing Minister Herzog are bringing us back to the corrupt days of Mapai," Hendel said yesterday, "as they try to throw millions of shekels at the kibbutzim in infrastructure investments for housing when not one [Gush Katif] resident will ever live there. If there is just one drop of honesty and ethics left, the State Comptroller must stop this absurd action that’s driving us into the abyss."
Hendel said the Housing Ministry, led by Minister Yaakov Herzog (Labor), was set to start spending millions of shekels to improve the infrastructure of the largely left wing-identified kibbutzim in order to provide temporary housing for Jewish refugees from Gush Katif.
A ministerial committee set up to devise temporary housing solutions for the refugees has already approved the construction of such housing, Hendel said, without going through the normal procedure of submitting the proposal to a public tender.
The main catch is, however, that the Gush Katif residents are not at all interested in living in the kibbutzim.
Hendel accused the Housing Minister of corruption reminiscent of the days when Mapai, the forerunner of the Labor party, used to funnel large sums of money to prop up institutions such as the kibbutzim, whose residents generally voted for the Labor party.
Hendel said that there was no logic in spending billions of shekels on temporary housing in secular kibbutzim that would be of no interest to virtually any residents of Gush Katif, almost all of whom are religious.
“[Disengagement Authority head] Yonatan Bassi and Housing Minister Herzog are bringing us back to the corrupt days of Mapai," Hendel said yesterday, "as they try to throw millions of shekels at the kibbutzim in infrastructure investments for housing when not one [Gush Katif] resident will ever live there. If there is just one drop of honesty and ethics left, the State Comptroller must stop this absurd action that’s driving us into the abyss."