Finance C'tee approves NIS 13m. to Samaria visitor center
Opposition MKs say move is motivated by elections, accuse committee chairman MK Slomiansky of using funding as 'a gift ahead of the primaries' to his allies.
Another shouting match broke out at the Knesset's Finance Committee on Sunday after the committee approved a bill proposal by chairman MK Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit Yehudi) to transfer NIS 13 million to fund the construction of a new visitor center in the settlement of Barkan in the Samaria.
Opposition MKs claimed the money transfer was a political move timed with the upcoming elections that encourages settlement construction.
"Committee chairman Slomiansky is acting against the law and misled the Finance Committee," MK Erel Margalit (Labor) said. "We demand to immediately cancel this act of underhanded opportunism for the settlements."
Margalit turned to the Knesset's legal advisor, Attorney Eyal Yinon, asking him to interfere in the matter and declare the vote illegal. Margalit also called to remove Slomiansky from the chairmanship, after the latter said the Arrangements Committee had approved the funding for the visitor center, even though it had not.
MK Stav Shaffir (Labor) also attacked Slomiansky, saying that once again committee members were approving politically-motivated money transfers in the midst of an elections campaign.
"The chairman of the Finance Committee has shamelessly lied to MKs and was caught red-handed," Shaffir said. "How is the Israeli public supposed to feel when the public's money is in the hands of politicians who don't hesitate to lie to the public in order to transfer money to their allies as a gift ahead of the primaries? The public's money does not belong to Slomiansky and his allies; it belongs to the tax-paying Israeli citizens."
The center, which is being built in the Barkan industrial area under the name "The Israeli Way," is meant to provide visitors with information on the history, geography, flora and fauna of the area. The center was the brainchild of the Samaria Regional Council in an effort to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors per year to the area, particularly teenagers and students.
The company Breeze Creative will take part in the project, and will build five different areas: "West, East, North and South, and one area showing the Samaria as part of Greater Israel." The center will include 25 displays and games "that will be an interactive experience teaching about the land of Israel."
This was not the first time opposition MKs at the Finance Committee go head to head with Slomiansky. Hours ahead of the vote on the dissolution of the Knesset two weeks ago, committee members approved NIS 221 million for Judea and Samaria councils. Most of the MKs from Yesh Atid and Labor arrived at the committee meeting to try and stop the approval of the new budgets. On the other side, almost all of Netanyahu's allies arrived at the meeting to make sure the funds were approved.
