Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his wife, Lihi, stayed at the prime ministerial compound on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street on Saturday night, after a year in which his predecessor Naftali Bennett resided in his family home in Ra’anana.
The Prime Minister’s Residence in the compound is under heavy renovation, directed by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to better secure the structure.
Bennett’s choice not to live in Balfour was a matter of controversy over the past year, coming at a great expense to the taxpayer and inconvenience to his neighbors, who appealed to the courts to force him to move.
Lapid and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar discussed the matter in their meeting on Friday. Bar said most of the security and infrastructure problems have yet to be fixed, but agreed to find a way to expedite the renovations.
Rather than stay in the main house, the Lapids will temporarily reside in an apartment that had been used by Shin Bet security guards within the Balfour compound, in a house known as Villa Hana Salameh.
Bar said that there will also have to be increased security at Lapid’s home in Tel Aviv, but that the Shin Bet will try not to disrupt the daily lives of his neighbors and to lower costs by moving security apparatus that had been used for other purposes.