Last update - 00:00 14/08/2007
Acre, Carmiel and Tiberias petition court for frontline benefts
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
The northern towns of Acre, Carmiel and Tiberias petitioned the High Court of Justice on Tuesday demanding the government and Finance Ministry grant their local authorities and residents the benefits given to residents in frontline communities in Israel's north.
A government decision classified towns within nine kilometers of the northern border "frontline communities." The classification makes them eligible for benefits in order to alleviate the security onus caused by their proximity to the border.
The petitioners claim that last summer's Second Lebanon War, which found all of Israel's north under fire from Katyusha rocket attacks fired by Hezbollah militants, proved "undoubtedly" that the security onus placed on Acre, Carmiel and Tiberias is identical to that on the communities close to the border.
The three towns also say that the tax benefits granted to the towns situated on the border are causing them "negative emigration to the benefit of the border communities; a substantial decrease ? to the point of a total halt ? in construction of housing; and difficulty in carrying out tourist and business initiatives.?
In a forum of the northern frontline communities held last week, representatives called on Defense minister Ehud Barak to refrain from expanding the definition of frontline communities eligible for aid.
The chairman of the forum and Ma'alot-Tarshiha mayor, Shlomo Buhbut, said that the issue is not purely a security issue.
"The further you get from the center, the treatment you receive is more like that of the distant periphery," he said.
Buhbut also said that granting benefits to communities further from the border would hurt the frontline communities.
"We are in favor of Carmiel and Tiberias and Acre receiving benefits, but we also need to maintain the strength of the front line, and beyond the tax reduction, we have nothing," Buhbut said.