An Egyptian expert on Israeli affairs has claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "lives in a house belonging to an Egyptian family". According to Hussein Siraj, the two-storey building was built originally as a holiday home before the establishment of the Israeli state. There are, apparently, many properties in Jerusalem now controlled by Israel which actually belong to Egyptians.

"It is no secret," said Mr. Siraj, "that Sultan Monastery in Jerusalem, for example, which was at the centre of a huge controversy when it was seized by the Ethiopian Church with the support of the Israeli Authority, is actually an Egyptian-owned property." He added that the current value of such properties is an estimated $20 billion.

Research carried out by Hussein Siraj shows that the house now used by Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessors was built by Edward Aghion, a member of a well-known Egyptian family with a strong reputation in banking. In 1936 he decided to buy some land in Jerusalem, in the area called Rahalia, to build his family a holiday home. After 1948 and the proclamation of the state of Israel, the building was turned into a military hospital before becoming the headquarters of Foreign Ministers and then the Prime Minister's residence.

Source: Palestine News / Cairo