Project allegedly exceeds permits; Pollack in house arrest.
By JPOST.COM STAFFHOLYLAND 311(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Jerusalem city engineer Shlomo Eshkol and municipal legal adviser Yossi Havilio on Tuesday called for the Holyland project to be frozen in a report submitted to the city municipality on Tuesday.The report stated that the project had already used most of its allotted construction permits, which was inconsistent with the entrepreneurs' intention to build three more tower blocks at the site, more than doubling the size of the project.While the two stated in the report that the permits had originally been granted in accordance with the preapproved construction blueprints, a meeting with the entrepreneur had revealed the permits were not sufficient for the completion of the three towers.Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Kobi Kahlon, who also heads the city's Planning and Housing Committee, will chair a discussion next week regarding the freeze of Holyland construction rights, inviting all interest holders to participate.In a related devlopment, Yehoshua Pollack, former Jerusalem deputy mayor and head of the local Planning and Housing Committee, was released to house arrest earlier Tuesday.He is suspected of setting the Holyland project expansion in motion in exchange for bribes, money laundering, fraud, breach of public trust and conspiracy to commit a crime.On Monday, former Olmert bureau head Shula Zaken was arrested immediately after touching down at Ben-Gurion Airport. Police suspect former prime minister Ehud Olmert of accepting large amounts of cash in bribes from businessmen backing the Holyland real estate development, and believe the funds were transferred via Zaken.
