The National Committee for the Heads of Arab Local Authorities appealed to Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara on Wednesday, calling on her to intervene on the government’s plan to freeze budgets to Arab authorities.
On November 4th, 2021, the Bennet-Lapid government signed Resolution 550, or ‘Takadum’, which allocated 30 billion shekels to the economic development of Israeli-Arab society. According to the Committee, the current government is working to cut Resolution 550 budgets, refrain from transferring funds to Arab municipalities, and instead transfer the money to other places. The committee also states in its letter that Druze authorities have received their budgets as promised.
"On the subjugation of the economic plans, which have already been agreed upon and set in motion, a heavy cloud hangs over the catalog of an entire public, the Arab public, as if it were assigned out of disgust," the letter reads, referring to the past agreements of the last two governments.
Amir Bisharat, CEO of the National Committee for the Heads of Arab Local Authorities, explained that there are two major budgets which are being delayed. One is a grant to the Ministry of the Interior's budget, and the other is a development budget awarded to poor municipalities.
Under the previous government, the grant was transferred to the authorities, but under the current government the money has not yet been transferred. Basharat claims that the Minister of Finance is purposely delaying the transfer of the money.
The Arab authorities, most of which have no source of income except for residential property taxes, find it difficult to invest in the development of the settlements. The development budget was not transferred to the Arab authorities on the grounds that the criminal organizations are taking over these budgets.
"Minister of Interior Moshe Arbel said that this year's budget will pass in any case, but the supervision of its spending will be closer," Bisharat said. "The Ministry of the Interior told the authorities that the money will be transferred this year and the budget must be adjusted accordingly." But the Ministry of Finance did not transfer the aforementioned budget to the Ministry of the Interior.
"In my opinion, this is pure racism and competition with the former minister, [Ayelet] Shaked, who did not pass the budget. There is no justification for freezing the budget. Especially in this period of school renovation, the additional grant and the development grant are required," Bisharat said. He claimed that the authorities signed contracts based on the Ministry of Interior's promise to transfer the money.
"Smotrich refuses to pass the budget,” Bisharat continued. “I want to believe that the Minister of Finance does not judge the validity of local elections. But now it is impossible to use the development budgets for new contracts, only existing ones. The balance grant should be used by the heads of the authorities as stipulated in the current budget."
Bisharat explained that the letter was preceded by requests to the government ministers, who did not respond. Chairman of the Committee of Municipality Heads, Moder Younes, took part in the Ministerial cCommittee for the Arab society as a regular guest.
"From the beginning of the government's tenure, we warned Netanyahu that entrusting economic programs to racist ministers is dangerous and illogical, and entrusting the eradication of crime to a criminal is a recipe for conflagration. And here it is," said Bisharat.
"This coming Sunday, we will set up an open protest tent in front of the Prime Minister's office," he said in terms of next steps. "We will not open the school year in the shadow of crime and the budget cuts. We will not be able to provide services to the residents."
This article was translated from Hebrew by Hannah Blount.
