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Rehovot's Weizmann Institute Has Become A Luxury Housing Constructor
The construction of the luxury villa housing complex on the grounds of the Weizmann Institute, located on the land of the old orange groves just a hundred meters away from the house of the First President of Israel Mr. Chaim Weizmann, was not publicized by the Institutes' Press Office.
One can easily understand the lack of information given out on this construction, as it is not a scientific achievement. While the Institute's Science Administration made their decision on the building of the profit-making housing complex a long time ago, it is not clear as to what would be the reaction on such non-scientific usage of the Institute's land by the WIS's employees. Nor is it apparent what the Institute's Executive Committee (most of whom are based in the USA) and of all those who truly care about Israel's science have to say about the matter. How many new laboratories, classrooms and academic buildings could have been built instead of this new housing complex, situated near the Institute's Weizmann House entrance?
MyRehovot readers and Rehovot's Mayor Shuki Forer might again ask themselves another question of importance regarding the city's budget. Is the long-standing decision made by a previous Minister of Internal Affairs, giving the Weizmann Institute exemption from paying municipal tax on property (called in Hebrew "Arnona", see MyRehovot publication of December 11, 2004) completely outdated today and demands re-evaluation?
Commercial activities of the major Israeli Academic Science Institution (which started a long time ago with the establishment of Yeda, the Institute's Department for commercialization of the scientific discoveries made by the Institute's scientists) require re-assessment by those responsible for the execution of Israel's laws, especially in the field of municipality taxation.
Rehovot Municipality claims that the Weizmann Institute must pay an annual sum of 35 million New Israel Shekels (NIS) in municipal taxes, which would cover two thirds of Rehovot's budget deficit. By not paying any municipal taxes at all, the WIS is, in effect, stealing monies from Rehovot's ordinary law-abiding residents, children, senior citizens, all of us.
Important: this publication is an original material by MyRehovot.Info. Citation and/or re-printing in any media is permitted in case it is properly cited and the hyperlink to http://www.myrehovot.info is provided. Original Russian Text is available at this link.
One can easily understand the lack of information given out on this construction, as it is not a scientific achievement. While the Institute's Science Administration made their decision on the building of the profit-making housing complex a long time ago, it is not clear as to what would be the reaction on such non-scientific usage of the Institute's land by the WIS's employees. Nor is it apparent what the Institute's Executive Committee (most of whom are based in the USA) and of all those who truly care about Israel's science have to say about the matter. How many new laboratories, classrooms and academic buildings could have been built instead of this new housing complex, situated near the Institute's Weizmann House entrance?
MyRehovot readers and Rehovot's Mayor Shuki Forer might again ask themselves another question of importance regarding the city's budget. Is the long-standing decision made by a previous Minister of Internal Affairs, giving the Weizmann Institute exemption from paying municipal tax on property (called in Hebrew "Arnona", see MyRehovot publication of December 11, 2004) completely outdated today and demands re-evaluation?
Commercial activities of the major Israeli Academic Science Institution (which started a long time ago with the establishment of Yeda, the Institute's Department for commercialization of the scientific discoveries made by the Institute's scientists) require re-assessment by those responsible for the execution of Israel's laws, especially in the field of municipality taxation.
Rehovot Municipality claims that the Weizmann Institute must pay an annual sum of 35 million New Israel Shekels (NIS) in municipal taxes, which would cover two thirds of Rehovot's budget deficit. By not paying any municipal taxes at all, the WIS is, in effect, stealing monies from Rehovot's ordinary law-abiding residents, children, senior citizens, all of us.
Important: this publication is an original material by MyRehovot.Info. Citation and/or re-printing in any media is permitted in case it is properly cited and the hyperlink to http://www.myrehovot.info is provided. Original Russian Text is available at this link.
3 Comments:
At May 23, 2005,
Anonymous said…
If whoever has written this piece of tripe had bothered to check his/her facts, (s)he would have discovered that:
(a) the houses were sold to tenured WIS faculty at prices approaching market prices
(b) that limitations on resale (only to other WIS tenured faculty) effectively make this project no longer competitive with the free market
(c) that this project took nearly 7 years to build, and that the houses --- which look impressive from the OUTSIDE --- were delivered with so many construction flaws on the INSIDE that (a) some new owners flat-out refused to move into them; (b) at least one other new owner had to be hospitalized following injuries inflicted by this "luxury"
(d) that this whole project was anything but secret (from the US donors or anybody else), and part of a master plan to relieve the chronic shortage in on-campus housing for temporary (i.e., tenure-track) faculty by inducing permanent faculty to buy their own on-campus home so their on-campus apartments can be added to the "temporary housing" pool. (Newly tenured faculty has been ineligible for these apartment for some years now.)
The suggestion that WIS should subsidize the notoriously corrupt, inefficient, and bloated Rehovot city administration (which takes pride of place in every annual State Comptroller's report) is too ridiculous for words.
At May 24, 2005,
Anonymous said…
Would it surprise the writer to consider that paying 35M NIS Arnona would take exactly that much money out of research into medicine and therapies for the people of Israel?
At May 24, 2005,
Anonymous said…
A big part of Rehovot's attraction for visitors and residents has to do with Weizmann Institute being located in Rehovot. (Something which the author forgot to mention). One easy way to measure this is by looking at the price of comparable housing in different parts of Rehovot--prices near Weizmann are clearly higher- a simple model of supply and demand.
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