Last update - 00:00 19/06/2007
Defense Ministry to begin renovations of shelters in North next month
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
The Defense Ministry and Amigour, a housing company belonging to the Jewish Agency, will begin renovating 6,000 shelters in the north next month, a year after the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War.
The cost of the project is estimated at NIS 100 million, but regional councils are complaining about discrimination.
The northern Galilee city of Kiryat Shmona, whose residents absorbed Katyusha attacks during the second Lebanon War, has 120 shelters awaiting renovation. According to the new government funding, that translates into an average investment of NIS 16,500 per shelter. But it appears that some Kiryat Shmona residents have been enjoying better service from other sources.
The Livnot Ulehibanot (Build and be Rebuilt) fund has been promoting over the past few months a renovation project of 50 shelters in Kiryat Shmona at an estimated cost of NIS 32,000 per shelter - twice as much as the government's funding.
'We're talking about shelters that have been turned into the standard of hotel suites,' says Beni Avrahami, who coordinated the association's renovation project in his neighborhood of Kiryat Shmona. The fund's project is funded by the UJA-Federation of New York.
Head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, Aharon Valensi, complained last month that 'the government was discriminating against the residents of regional councils in the north.'
However, it is well known that the shelters in regional councils are generally in better condition than those in cities, so their renovation is expected to be loss costly.
At any rate, after three Katyusha rockets fell on Kiryat Shmona Sunday, many local residents complained that the government has done nothing to improve their shelters since last summer's war.
The government will contribute about NIS 60 million to the renovation project in accordance with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision last month to allocate funds toward upgrading shelters. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) will supply the remaining NIS 40 million.
The government funding will be used to improving 3,300 public shelters in towns and cities north of Acre and in the Golan Heights. The Defense Ministry will be responsible for the renovation work itself.
The IFCJ will fund renovation of 2,700 shelters belonging to private owners, which will come under the responsibility of Amigour.