Kulanu chairperson Moshe Kahlon vowed on Monday to disband the Israel Land Authority (ILA) – the government body tasked with managing state land that makes up 93% of the currently annexed territory of Israel – as part of a plan to lower housing prices.
Speaking to veteran journalist Ben Caspit at the “Rocking the Market” event on marketing in Tel Aviv, Kahlon said “only Cuba and North Korea hold quantities of land like the Israel Land Authority.”
“The government is the only guilty party for the fiasco of housing prices and living expenses,” charged Kahlon. “The prime minister (Binyamin Netanyahu) and finance minister (Yair Lapid) fought from the first day the government was formed, and the public interest stood at the end of their priorities.”
The bottom line regarding intentions to lower prices “is in acts and not words,” said Kahlon. “We have an organized plan to disband the Israel Land Authority and I announce here – I’m going to break up the Israel Land Authority, and any ministry that I will be in will be responsible for the authority. In this way I won’t be able to accuse anyone of anything.”
When asked by Caspit why he left Likud, where he previously served as a governmental minister, Kahlon said “the gaps between me and today’s Likud are primarily social. I have no problem with the people in Likud, I have a problem with their path.”
“Eighty percent of the Likud party meetings in recent years were on political issues and on settlements, and not on development towns and impoverished neighborhoods,” said Kahlon. “Likud today isn’t in the social places where I was raised, in the Likud of (Menachem) Begin.”
Regarding “settlements,” many have argued that Israel’s housing crisis could be solved by annexing and developing Judea and Samaria, over 90% of which is reportedly unpopulated.
Kulanu thus far has focused heavily on economic issues – but unlike Labor or Yesh Atid, Kahlon has leaned toward capitalist, not socialist, solutions to Israel’s cost of living and housing crises.
Recent elections polls project eight seats in the Knesset for Kulanu, with the possibility of one or two more due to a ‘surplus votes’ pact with Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party.
Regarding Kulanu’s political stance, Kahlon has been aligning with former members of the Kadima party that pushed for unilateral land concessions. He also said recently “we will not waste an opportunity for peace and will not hesitate to vacate territory,” leaving open the option to expel Jews and concede land.