The data, according to which tens of millions of shekels have been spent in recent months from the state coffers on renovating and adapting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's private home in Raanana to security needs, as revealed by Ayala Hasson on Channel 13, indicate the opacity and numbness of all parties involved.
One can understand the hearts of the Bennett family's neighbors in Raanana, whose lives have become unbearable due to the renovation work, but the more serious problem for me is that Bennett has decided that his private home will become an official for the Prime Minister, even though in a year and five months (August 2023) he will The coalition agreement, to resign in favor of Yair Lapid. Where will the Prime Minister's residence then be?
Will the renovation of Lapid's private home in Tel Aviv begin in a year and a half and its adaptation to serve as an official residence?
The Prime Minister's permanent residence (which has been under renovation for a few months) is the beautiful house on Balfour Street in the Talbiyeh neighborhood of Jerusalem. By the architect Richard Kaufman. In 1941, Peter II, King of Yugoslavia, lived in this house for about two months. During the War of Independence, Agion was able to temporarily convert the building into a hospital for Irgun fighters.
In 1952, the house was purchased by the state to serve as the residence of then-Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, and in 1974 the government decided that the prime minister's residence would be this house.
But this decision was not approved by law, so Bennett allows himself to renovate his private home in Raanana for tens of millions of shekels at the expense of public money to turn it into a prime minister's residence.
It is strange that none of the senior members of the Prime Minister's Office, nor the new Attorney General, Gali Bahar Rabbi Miara, commented on this. Britain does not consider not living at 10 Downing Street, the French president does not think he can give up his official residence at the Elysee Palace, and the US president does not consider not living in the White House.
Bennett's spokesman said at the time that he would continue to live with his wife and four children in Raanana, and that he would come to the official residence several times a week for official purposes such as hosting leaders and meetings with state delegations or when forced to work in Jerusalem until the wee hours of the night.
By the way, the deputy director of the Prime Minister's Office also defined in a letter he sent to Bennett's neighbors in Raanana that Bennett's house is "the prime minister's residence."
The Movement for the Quality of Government turned to State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman this week, noting that "there is concern that the prime minister's decision to stay in his private home in Raanana and turn it into the de facto prime minister brings with it severe damage to public coffers along with ongoing damage to nearby streets."
There is certainly room for such an examination by the State Comptroller, as a previous auditor examined in 2015 the publications on excessive expenses on catering, landscaping and cleaning at the Prime Minister's Residence, during the time of Benjamin Netanyahu.
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