2023-08-21 06:39:51
Arrested and injured in clashes between protesters and the police in a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem today (Monday), in protest of the failure to transfer the funds to the Arab authorities as part of the five-year plan for the Arab society. Among those arrested is the head of the local council of Zara, and a number of demonstrators including a worker of the local council of Zara were injured and evacuated for further treatment.
Thousands of citizens participated in the demonstration, including the heads of Arab authorities, Hadash Chairman Ayman Odeh, Ra’am Chairman Mansur Abbas and Chairman of the Monitoring Committee of the Arabs of Israel Muhammad Bracha. The clashes began when Border Guard forces tried to keep the protesters away from the Ministry of Finance building .
The National Committee for the Heads of Arab Local Authorities strongly condemned the “violence and brutality” of the police at the demonstration. According to the committee, “the demonstration was an example and model of the organization of the Arab society and a legitimate protest against the government. If the police and the Minister of National Security Ben Gabir had allocated a small part of the forces working against the protests that have been taking place in recent months to solve the murder cases in the Arab society, the percentage of solving would probably have been higher than a measly 8% “.
Severe violence by police officers @IL_police In a demonstration of the heads of the Arab authorities in front of the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, in protest of the minister’s decision @bezalelsm Freeze a budget of hundreds of millions of shekels for the Arab authorities.
In the photo: a clerk in the Mazarah Council who was affected by the violence of police officers who, according to her, kicked her in the head.. pic.twitter.com/pdoam9JzPU– Yasser Okbi (@OkbiYasser) August 21, 2023
The local authorities throughout the country were shut down this morning (Monday) for two hours, from 8:00 to 10:00, and the Arab authorities are on strike throughout the day. The demonstrators chant “shame”, “money for the authorities not for the settlements”, and “yes for equality not for racism”.
Demonstration of Arab local authorities in front of the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem, demanding the transfer of the budget additions from the five-year plan (Photo: Yaniv Sharon)
Demonstration of Arab local authorities in front of the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem, demanding the transfer of the budget additions from the five-year plan (Photo: Yaniv Sharon)
Demonstration of Arab local authorities in front of the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem, demanding the transfer of the budget additions from the five-year plan (Photo: Yaniv Sharon)
Demonstration of Arab local authorities in front of the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem, demanding the transfer of the budget additions from the five-year plan (Photo: Yaniv Sharon)
“If there is no budget, the whole system will collapse”
Ibrahim Moassihead of the water association and former deputy mayor of Baka, tells ‘Davar’: “I arrived here two days after a catheterization. We are here because under Netanyahu Smotrich decided to stop the budgets. This is for education, health, welfare, infrastructure. When there is poverty, there is violence, There is crime. We are very worried about the violence, it has no borders, it flows into Jewish society as well. In addition to education and the values we grew up with, our values the Arab Muslims as partners with the Jews, we need budgets.”
Moasi tells about the effects of the suspension of the budgets for the authorities. “The contractors stopped working, cleaning contractors for example,” he says, “Why should there be piles of garbage in front of my house? 60 percent of the budget is for the schools. If students don’t go to school, what will happen? If there is no budget, the whole system will collapse. After they have invested When the authorities woke up, Smotrich came and, for political and racist reasons, stopped budgets. Today we are almost 5,000 here, next time we will be a hundred thousand, because it affects the whole society. For Smotrich to stop his nonsense and behave like a human being. There is money here to make the country flourish, but people With political considerations spoiling everything.”
Solidarity strike in local authorities
The Chairman of the Local Government Center, Haim Bibbs, announced yesterday (Sunday) that all the local authorities would join the strike, “out of solidarity and understanding that we are all part of the mosaic of Israeli society”. will be transferred.
In a letter to the heads of the authorities, Bibbs wrote that during the hours of the sanctions the workers will come to the authority’s offices, but there will be no public reception and no telephone answers will be given, and he recommended that the time be used for information gatherings for the workers. However, not all authorities actually go on strike and it is recommended to check with the municipal hotline whether the strike is indeed taking place.
“These are budgets allocated according to government resolution 550, which is the economic plan for the Arab society, and they are supposed to be used, first and foremost, for basic services, education, welfare, infrastructure, and to help close the gaps and advance the Arab local authorities,” Bibbs wrote to the heads of the authorities, “this is a violation In the most weakened authorities that are already today just before collapse. Violence and crime are rising and reaching everywhere, and the prolonged freezing of budgets brings the authorities to a state of dysfunction and inability to provide services to their residents.”
The shutdown of the Arab authorities was already announced last week. The announcement of the joining of all the authorities to the strike was made by Bibbs at the preparatory conference for the opening of the school year of the Association of Directors of the Education Divisions held in Baqa al-Jarbia. “Tomorrow the local government joins the strike of the heads of the Arab authorities and will sit from 08:00-10:00. If the Arab authorities do not receive the budget they are supposed to receive by September 1, we will meet and make a decision.”
The increase in the budget for the Arab authorities is part of the Takadom plan – a five-year plan for the Arab society that was approved by the previous government. Finance Minister Smotrich announced his opposition to the transfer of the budget, on the grounds that the money will actually be transferred to criminal elements, and that the government has more important priorities. After a protest by the heads of the authorities and also by Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided that the money would go through but that mechanisms would be established to ensure that it would reach its goals. The CEO of the Prime Minister’s Office, Yossi Shelli, pledged in an interview on IDF airwaves last week that the money will be transferred to the authorities. According to a report by the Interior Ministry’s representative in the Knesset’s Youth Committee last week, a joint team was established for the Interior and Finance Ministries to examine the money transfers.
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