Socially aware legislation: Lower rents and tougher sentences for animal cruelty
Members of both the coalition and the opposition are wasting no time in drafting legislation to help the weaker sectors of society.
Amid the controversy over plans to reform the judicial system, some lawmakers are planning more socially aware legislation, including freezing rent prices and a tougher stand against animal abusers.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon isn't wasting any time. His plan to cool the housing market and prevent irregular hikes in rent prices is underway – with a two-year freeze on rent prices in Israel set to go into effect within two months from now.
Kahlon, in fact, is adopting a plan that has been formulated by the treasury over the past year and under which landlords will be allowed to raise their rent prices only in two years' time, and only in keeping with the increase in the Consumer Price Index, or if the Index is very low. Treasury officials said Tuesday that a five-year freeze was not on the cards and wouldn't make any sense.
Already before the elections, Kahlon announced that he planned to put the brakes on the rise in rent prices for the coming two years, and to use the time to review plans to construct apartments for rental purposes.
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Rent prices in Israel have increased by an average of 15 percent over the past three years, with the Dan region seeing a hike of more than 20 percent. The market has eased off a little of late, but recent months have still recorded moderate increases, particularly in the center of the country.
Meanwhile, Zionist Union MK Itzik Shmuli is working a bill that would mean jail time for anyone convicted of animal abuse, removing the option of paying a fine, and increasing the maximum sentence for such an offense from three to five years.
Shmuli has already collected the signatures of two-thirds of the Knesset members from across the political spectrum for his law proposal.
Under the current law, an individual convicted of animal abuse, torture or cruelty can face up to three years in prison or a maximum fine of NIS 226,000.
"I'm not prepared to accept a reality in which individuals abuse and are cruel to animals in the harshest ways and the courts in response make do with lightweight and ridiculous penalties," Shmuli said.
