News

"If you've always dreamed of being a member of a kibbutz, now you can at least make a part of your dream come true. For not too much money, you can live in a house on a kibbutz - well, adjacent to one. You will be considered a resident of the kibbutz and your children can enroll in the kibbutz schools, but you will not be an official member of the kibbutz." Arik Mirovsky, Ha'aretz. 

"The appointment of a new director of the Israel Lands Administration could very rapidly go from being a bureaucratic issue that primarily concerns land experts to a ticking bomb for society, due to the sensitivity of the matter of land and its influence on majority-minority relations in Israel. That is precisely what is liable to take place in the wake of the expected appointment of Yoel Lavi, the mayor of Ramle, as director of the ILA." Alexandre (Sandy) Kedar, Ha'aretz. 
 

 "Eli Yones at the opening plenum of the "Globes" Real Estate Conference 2008, being held today [March 5, 2008] at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv:  An obvious shortcoming in the Israeli mortgage market is that it does not solve the problem of the poor. The banks can only partly solve this problem. The question whether the mortgage market should solve the problem." Michal Yoshai, Globes 

"The ILA went into shock at the ruling, which means that the Bronfman-Fisher group can use the structure that it built on the site for a number of purposes - but not as a location for an IKEA branch, at least until the Supreme Court rules on the appeal filed by the group. The ILA can hardly courteously conceal its hope that the Supreme Court will cancel the District Court's ruling that disqualified the group's tender award." Arik Mirovsky, Ha'aretz. 
 

"Or is there perhaps a sophisticated plan at work here, and as compensation for the sum of about NIS 88 per month laid out by daily users of the highway, the country intends to invest a huge sum in infrastructure, education and a mass-transportation system for the country's South?" Sandy Kedar, Ha'aretz.

"The Construction and Housing Ministry will ask the Treasury this week to increase rent subsidies for people who struggle to find a home, The Jerusalem Post has learned. At present, a non-oleh applicant for housing aid is likely to receive NIS 536 per month at most, says Chaim Fialkoff, acting director-general at the Construction and Housing Ministry." Noach Lawrence, THE JERUSALEM POST.

"The agricultural sector is the Israel Lands Administration's favorite son. Until now that had merely been a cliche, hurled by frustrated developers, but a recent academic study based on analysis of ILA decisions over 40 years proves the feeling is a fact." Avi Bar-Eli, Haaretz.