Last update - 00:00 28/10/2003
Finance Committee approves NIS 126 million for settlements
By Zvi Zrahiya, Haaretz Correspondent
The Knesset Finance Committee Monday approved the treasury's request to transfer NIS 126.7 million to settlements and communities near the confrontation line.
"The government has money for the settlements, but not for education, culture, single-parent families or health," protested MK Haim Oron (Meretz), who opposed the transfer.
Oron said that despite his repeated requests to the Housing Ministry over the past months, he received no information on the funds allocated to the West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements.
Of the sum approved Monday, NIS 33.750 million is earmarked for rural construction, part of which is in the territories, and NIS 93 million for subsidizing the development of infrastructures in national priority areas. Some of the funds will be used to build 136 housing units, 100 of them in the territories.
Commenting on the transfer, a spokesman for the Peace Now movement said that while the state coffers are empty and its welfare and culture institutions have gone bankrupt, the government is throwing away NIS 120 million on the settlements. "This decision is abandoning the citizens of Israel in favor of the settlers and striking a severe blow to Israeli society," he said.
Since some of the Likud's Finance Committee members were absent, the party brought other MKs to vote at the meeting, to ensure a majority. The funds transfer was approved by a vote of 8-7. In addition to opposition members, Meli Polishuk-Bloch (Shinui) voted against. MK Ehud Ratzabi (Shinui) abstained.
Housing Ministry Director-General Avi Maoz apologized for not replying to Oron. He said NIS 13.750 million of the funds approved Monday was earmarked for industrial structures in 2002, which was not used. Another NIS 20 million was earmarked for the same purpose in 2003.
According to Maoz, 80 percent of the housing allocations last year went to settlements in the territories.
Oron and Shohat said the information about the financial allocations was not complete even after Maoz's explanations. Shinui's representatives protested that despite their request to separate the allocations to the territories from those to communities within the Green Line, they were lumped together in the transfer proposal.