Criticism grew within both the coalition and opposition on Sunday over comments made by the Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf (UTJ) last week, in which he said he repurposed housing projects in Beit Shemesh intended for non-haredi citizens to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) populace.
During a speech he gave at an education conference in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday, Goldknopf said, “What they thought would go to the general public, we found some way to allocate to the haredi public instead. But not everything can be talked about in the open.”
Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli sharply criticized Goldknopf in a post on X/Twitter on Friday and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to replace Goldknopf.
Chikli wrote that the situation had “reached a breaking point” and that Goldknopf’s actions provided for “malicious and cunning discrimination against the general public.”
“It is impossible to justify a continued partnership with a housing minister who is indifferent to the citizens of Israel and who does not care about reservists,” Chikli wrote, saying that Goldknopf had prioritized housing for haredim over housing for IDF reservists. He pressed Netanyahu to appoint a new minister from one of the Zionist parties.
Letter to A-G
Opposition MK Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid) demanded in a letter on Sunday to Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara that she open a criminal investigation into Goldknopf’s actions over fraud and breach of trust. Beliak said that Goldknopf had made “many similar comments” since taking office.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky later sent a similar demand, which she made out to both Baharav-Miara and State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman.
Goldknopf later issued a clarification. The housing minister wrote in a post on X, “I would like to apologize for the way I expressed myself in the speech last Wednesday. Rest assured, the Construction and Housing Ministry operates in accordance with the law, and contrary to how interested parties sought to interpret my words – nothing has been done against regulations.
“The ministry works for the benefit of all populations in the State of Israel, and I regret the way my statements were presented,” Goldknopf wrote.