Last update - 00:00 10/09/2006
Rights groups call on PM to reconsider 2007 budget proposal
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
The anti-poverty organization Halev on Sunday submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice demanding it order the postponement of the cabinet meeting on the 2007 budget.
If approved, the move would give cabinet ministers time to study the Finance Ministry's budget proposal, conduct an in-depth discussion and come up with feasible alternatives to the proposed budget cuts that could potentially harm Israel's poorer sectors.
Attorneys Amit Mor and Guy Bagel, who head Halev, submitted the petition after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and cabinet ministers failed to respond to the movement's initial request to delay the meeting.
The upcoming meeting, which is to comprise discussions on the budget proposal and the Economic Arrangements Law, is "in violation of the rules of good governance and the proper democratic process, diminishes the public's faith in the government, and once again allows Finance Ministry clerks to dictate Israel's social-economic policies," Mor and Bagel wrote in the petition.
The Adva Center, a non-partisan policy analysis organization, also called on Olmert to ensure that the budget would not force low-income citizens to bear the brunt of the costs of the war in Lebanon.
The Adva Center asked that the ongoing decrease in taxes be halted and called for imposing a temporary tax increase on companies in the business sector, as is common in countries facing a budgetary emergency. The center also demanded that the government lift its freeze on National Insurance Institution pensions for 2007.
The Israeli Center for the Advancement of Social Justice also petitioned Olmert about the budget, reminding him that only a few months ago his government vowed to diminish the social gaps between the rich and the poor in Israel and provide equal opportunities to all its citizens.
The center admonished the prime minister for allowing the 2007 budget proposal to worsen the rift caused by previous cuts to social services and pensions, rather than aspiring for the promised solution.