Barak. Promises
Photo: Reuters
Northern presidents protest
Photo: Avihu Shapira
Barak: Government must strengthen northern communities
Defense minister meets with northern council heads, who slam decision to cut confrontation line residents' tax attributes
The government must work to strengthen the northern communities, Defense Minister Ehud Barak
said Wednesday in a meeting with northern council heads in the Upper Galilee.
"You represent residents who have withstood the fighting for years and are now at the front of the periphery," he said.
Barak praised the council heads, who protested the government's plan to cut the confrontation line residents' tax attributes.
Galilee Demonstration
Hundreds of northern residents rally in protest of government's plan to cut tax benefits to confrontation line communities; schools in region go on strike. 'Now is not the time to cut benefits,' President Peres declares
At the start of the meeting, Upper Galilee Local Council head Aharon Valenci thanked the defense minister for years of contribution to the north in terms of security.
"Barak is the most suitable person for the role of defense minister at this time, but we're having trouble with the fact that the Israeli government is not doing what it should for the north," he noted.
Maalot-Tarshiha Mayor Shlomo Buhbut, chairman of the confrontation line community forum, added that "the defense establishment has always warmly embraced the confrontation line residents. We ask you to view us as an important element in the north.
"We are soldiers at the front. Just like the IDF got more budgets after the recent war, and rightly so, there is no reason why additional budgets cannot be transferred in a bid to strengthen the north."
Buhbut expressed his fear that cutting the tax attributes would cause residents to leave the north.
"Over the past year, only 24 new housing units were sold in the confrontation line communities to residents from central Israel. This proves that cutting the benefits will cause the upper classes supporting our communities to leave.
"Everyone says that the employment rate in the north has dropped. It has indeed dropped, and the reason is that our young residents are completing their military service and university studies and have nowhere to return to."
During the discussion, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai announced that on Sunday the Defense Ministry will start renovating thousands of bomb shelters in the northern border's western area – including the towns of Shlomi, Nahariya and Maalot.
Vilnai noted that the decision had been approved by the Knesset's Finance Committee and that the renovation was expected to take several months.
Minister Edery appeals to PM Olmert
Meanwhile, Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee Jacob Edery sent an urgent letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"A probe I conducted and data presented to me reveal a gloomy state of affairs, which will cause people to emigrate from the confrontation line communities, will lead to the escape of a strong population and will significantly harm the income level of middle class families," Edery wrote.
He went on to address the plan to cut the tax attribute to 12%, saying that "the decision could undermine the stability in the employment market. Employers are unable to absorb the gaps which will be created in the wage levels, and the immediate result will be the relocation of factories to central Israel and emigration from the Galilee."
Minister Edery asked the prime minister to convene an urgent government meeting on the new plan.
