Israeli and American officials signed documents here this afternoon guaranteeing private loans totalling $50 million to finance the construction of 11,000 housing units for lower middle income families in Israel, including immigrants arriving from the Soviet Union and other countries. The signing took place in the office of Dr. John A. Hannah, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (AID) in the State Department building. AID is an agency under State Department jurisdiction but separately funded by Congress.
Signing for their respective governments were Dr. Hannah and Pinhas Sapir, Finance Minister of Israel. Signing contracts for the loans were Moshe J. Mann, managing director of Tehafot, the government-controlled Israel Mortgage Bank, and Bryce Curry and Kenneth Myers, presidents respectively of the Federal Home Loan Banks of New York and Boston. Myers told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency later that the loans will be made by 200 private US savings and loan associations in average amounts of $250,000 each. Present at the ceremony was Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Yitzhak Rabin.
Speaking informally after the signings, Sapir and Mann expressed special thanks to Stanley Baruch, director of AID’s Office of Housing for his efforts in arranging the guarantees for the loan repayments in record time. Under the guarantee contract negotiated by the two governments, the housing must be located within Israel’s borders as they existed before the June, 1967 Six-Day War. This precludes use of the loan funds for planned new housing in East Jerusalem.
NO CONNECTION WITH PENDING BILLS
State Department spokesman Charles Bray said in reply to questions at his regular press briefing earlier in the day that there was no connection between the government guaranteed housing loans to Israel and pending bills in Congress sponsored by Sens. Edmund Muskie (D.Me.) and Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash.) for financial aid to Israel to absorb the influx of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union expected this year.
The Muskie bill, and a matching bill in the House sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Bingham (D.NY) calls for $85 million in refugee aid to Israel. The Jackson measure would provide $250 million. Neither bill has come to the floor.
AMOUNT OF U.S. AID DISCLOSED
Bray told newsmen that “We have in this administration in several ways already taken steps to ease the burdens on both the emigrants to Israel and the Israel government which have stemmed from the increase in immigration to Israel.” He disclosed that since July 1, 1971 the US has contributed $210,000 to assist Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union during their transit stopover in Vienna.
He said the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration “to which we contribute in a major way” has assisted in defraying the coats of transportation from Vienna to Tel Aviv. Bray also disclosed that from July 1, 1970 through June 30, 1972 when the current fiscal year terminates, the US will have given Israel $1.1 billion in aid in all categories including military assistance.
HOUSING TO BENEFIT MANY
Beneficiaries of the housing will be mostly new immigrant families, newly formed families, Arab and other minority groups, and occupants of over-crowded or substandard housing. The selling price to a beneficiary of a dwelling under this program must not exceed $16,000. The loans are repayable to the American lending institutions over a period of 25 years at an annual interest rate of 7 1/2 percent. The home owners also will pay the AID guarantee fee of one-half of one percent on the outstanding amount of the loan. This brings the total interest paid to the US investor and AID to sight percent.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
