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Rehabilitating the North
By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, Israel National News
Israel
August 15, 2006
Several government ministries and offices announced on Tuesday that they will be focusing on rehabilitating the battered north of the country, with short-, medium- and long-range plans.
Speaking at a press conference today, Prime Minister's Office Director General Ra'anan Dinur told reporters, "The government will act in the short term to return life to its normal path, in the mid-term to allocate resources for initial rehabilitation in the private and public spheres, and in the long term to form comprehensive plans to strengthen the north."
Dinur was flanked by the directors general of the Health Ministry, the Tax Authority, and the Welfare and National Insurance Institute Administrations.
Among the aid packages currently offered by government agencies are deferments of income tax payments, value added tax revenues and national insurance installments. The government is arranging for loans to small businesses and $600 per month in rental assistance for residents whose homes have been destroyed or damaged.
Thirteen million shekels are to be allocated to dozens of local authorities to cover immediate needs, such as the purchase of home appliances and transportation for medical purposes. The Ministry of Labor and Welfare is seeking another 50 million shekels for support groups and support training for municipal employees.
The most immediate government assistance on offer is a free trip on public transportation for all displaced residents of the north who return home by the end of the week.
As part of the government initiative, official spokesmen, directors general of cabinet ministries and government ministers have been instructed to visit and work in the north at least two days a week. Mayors of the northern municipalities are meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday evening.
Among the long-term plans for the northern communities are rehabilitation of the municipal health and education systems, the completion of the northern extension of the cross-Israel toll road, a railway extension to Carmiel, as well as financial and tax incentives for Galilee businesses and residents.
In addition to government funding, monies for the long-term plans are slated to be raised from overseas donors.
Other Initiatives
Israel's emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, announced today that hundreds of its volunteers and employees will hand out thousands of packages of food to the elderly on Wednesday in the northern border town of Kiryat Shmona, which was evacuated in the later stages of the war in Lebanon. The MDA will also help the elderly residents of the town reorganize themselves in their homes after having spent so long in bomb shelters or away from the region.
In another initiative aimed at easing the burden for northern residents and institutions, Knesset
Member Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) proposed that the Interior Ministry offer the five hospitals located in the north a municipal tax break for the current year, as well as slashing annual municipal taxes for all northern residents by 50%. Ram Belenikov, director general of the Interior Ministry, said that his office will issue a formal reply to the proposed tax breaks next week. As of now, however, he said that he looks favorably upon the idea of municipal tax breaks for the region's hospitals; however, he believes that an across-the-board municipal tax cut may hurt the cities in question and make their recovery more difficult. Therefore, Belenikov suggested the possibility of an objective test of current financial ability to pay the municipal home-owner's tax in question.
Also on Tuesday, mayors of northern cities and towns met at a regional forum established to discuss the issues facing front-line communities. Among the issues raised was the Ministry of Education's instructions to open the school year nationwide as usual in September. The mayors expressed their doubts over the possibility of so swiftly overcoming the psychological effects of the war on the school children, and they have submitted a request that every school be assigned a psychologist. The mayors also despaired of repairing all of the schools that were physically damaged in Hizbullah attacks before the planned start of the school year.
Meanwhile, the head of the far-left Meretz-Yahad party, Knesset Member Yossi Beilin, has called for the establishment of an investigative committee that would examine, among other aspects of the Lebanon campaign, how the war deepened social gaps and led to the abandonment of the weaker segments of society, and why bomb shelters were not built in Arab communities.
The physical costs of the war, of course, include those wounded in enemy attacks. As of Tuesday morning, 118 civilians and soldiers remained hospitalized with wounds sustained during Israel's war with Hizbullah terrorists. Of those, 32 are reported to be in serious condition.
As of July 27, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson agreed that parliamentary talks regarding the 2007 national budget will resume only in September, which has enabled government offices to work on providing assistance to residents in northern communities.
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