Cabinet approves grants package for reservists - Haaretz

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Wed., November 21, 2007 Kislev 11, 5768

Israel Time: 02:42 (EST+7)

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Cabinet approves grants package for reservists

By Yuval Azoulay

The cabinet yesterday approved a package of benefits for IDF reserve soldiers. However, several benefits that the reservists had been promised - including cuts in municipal and television taxes - have been dropped, after objections from the relevant ministers.

The Finance Ministry, which objected to giving reserve soldiers tax breaks, agreed to give them an equivalent sum in grants, beginning next year. The grants will total NIS 200 million in 2008 and NIS 450 million in 2009.

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The cabinet approved setting up a ministerial committee, headed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, to determine how the funds will be passed on to the reservists. The plan is to pay each reservist whose duty exceeds an annual minimal quota some NIS 365 a month. Those who serve less than the minimum to be set by the committee will be paid less.

The mimimal quota is likely to be set at 30 days a year, which would entitle both combat and home-front reservists to a sum of about NIS 4,000 a year.

"We wanted to reward combat soldiers with a higher sum but technically it is impossible to carry out right now, so we compromised," a treasury source said.

The package includes giving priority to reservists in Israel Lands Administration solicits bids for land to build homes on, despite the ILA's objection. The ministerial committee will have to discuss how to overcome this obstacle.

Other benefits include reductions in Transportation Ministry licenses; scholarships and tuition assistance for students; housing loans on preferential terms; and priority in civil service appointments.

"This is a critical last-minute move to preserve and bolster the reserve forces, which proved vital in the Second Lebanon War," Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said of the benefits package. Barak agreed with him.

However, reservists' organizations were far from pleased with the proposal, demanding that their rights be anchored in new legislation. Such a proposal has been prepared, but is still pending on the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's agenda.

"I'm afraid the benefits package will be tantamount to a bag of goodies, enabling the cabinet to evade its duty in this respect," said MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz-Yahad), who is making efforts to enact the bill. "Unless the reserve law is enacted speedily in the next few months, the whole matter will be swept under the carpet," he said.

The chairman of the reserve soldiers forum, Aleh Minkowsky, said the benefits approved yesterday were not significant. "All the cabinet decided was to set up a ministerial committee, which would present a plan to implement the benefits within 45 days," he said.

The head of the Baltam reservists movement, Ro'i Ron, said he was also disappointed by the benefits package.

"We demand larger financial benefits, based on the average wages rather than minimum wages. Reservists must receive a meaningful compensation, like the one proposed in the bill submitted by the reservists. The cabinet's decision brings us no significant tidings," he said.

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