The Chairman of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), supports the transfer of the promised budget to Arab municipalities, Reshet Bet Radio reported Wednesday morning. According to the report, members of the finance committee from the coalition and the opposition are considering drafting a stern letter to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) demanding that the promised funds be transferred to the municipalities that will otherwise be facing financial collapse.
On Tuesday, Minister Smotrich responded to reports that he decided to freeze for two months a five-year program of NIS 2.5 billion ($680 million) in eastern Jerusalem, including NIS 200 million ($54 million) for higher education institutions there, saying that “the money has no professional justification, except catering to the political need of the heads of municipalities ahead of October’s local elections.”
Smotrich Freezes Lapid’s NIS 2.5 billion Deal with Arab Party: It Was Pure Politics
Meanwhile, the Negev and Galilee Ministry prevented the transfer of budgets to Arab society under its jurisdiction. The ministry was supposed to transfer 30% of its budget to Arab municipalities in accordance with the government’s decision on the Arab society’s economic development plan, but officials inside the ministry have complained that since Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit) took office, the ministry has refrained from issuing invitations to tender regarding various programs that were implemented last year, under the Lapid-Bennett government. Those include programs for education, higher education, employment, and the advancement of women in Arab society.
The same anonymous officials also suggested that the invitations to tender that have been issued by the Ministry of the Negev and the Galilee are worded in such a way that Arab municipalities would not meet the required prerequisites to access them and end up being cut off from the ministry’s budget.
Minister Wasserlauf said in response: “The Ministry of the Negev, the Galilee, and the National Resilience acted in an equal manner to advance all the residents of the Negev and the Galilee under its care. The ministry has invested millions of shekels in Arab and Bedouin society, within the framework of a variety of invitations to tender. The ministry will not allow the steering committees established by the previous government to determine its policy and professional priorities.”
Minister of Social Equality Amichai Chikli, whose ministry is responsible for carrying out the socio-economic development program in Arab society, declared on Tuesday that “there is no justification and no sense in denying balance grants to the Arab municipalities.”
Chikli wrote to Smotrich that “the municipalities relied on the grants in their planning, and denying them would lead to their entering into deficits and stopping basic services for the residents. My position as Minister for Social Equality is that action should be taken to transfer the budgets to the municipalities.”
Chikli accepts Smotrich’s claim that “there is an unprecedentedly serious problem of criminal elements taking over the tenders in some municipalities.” He offers several ways to deal with the problem, among them creating tenders for waste collection and transportation for several municipalities, establishing a pool of authorized contractors who are approved by the police, and forcing contractors to pay by checks.
Smotrich argued on Tuesday that “as for the claim that the Arab municipalities built on this budget and will therefore run into difficulties – with all due respect, this is a fundamentally unfounded argument. The local municipalities approved their budget for 2023 before the end of 2022 – the period of the election campaign and the negotiations for the establishment of the new government.
“During that period, there was no government in place and certainly no approved state budget to build on. The municipalities knew that they were being promised coalition funds, which were not based on the previous, leftist government’s real budget and therefore there is no reason in the world that it would be handed out by our government either.”
Update: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Wednesday evening:
“Israel’s Arab citizens deserve what all citizens deserve and I am committed to this. This is what I demand of all government ministries and it will be carried out following an evaluation to ensure that the funds are indeed transferred for their designated purpose – for Israel’s Arab citizens.”
The statement from the prime minister’s office added that the funds for the Arab local authorities in Israel will be transferred pursuant to an evaluation and supervision that they will be used for their designated purpose – for Israel’s Arab citizens and nothing else.
It is the policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to facilitate the development and social welfare of all Israeli citizens, Arab and Jewish alike. Proof to this effect is that the Netanyahu governments have invested more in Israel’s Arab citizens than all other governments combined.
