Following a discussion in the Knesset plenum on an appeal filed by Knesset members of Torah Judaism, the Knesset plenum this evening (Monday), by a majority of 58 supporters against 56 opponents, approved the Finance Committee’s decision to impose the tax on disposable utensils – the customs tariff and exemption tax goods.
The order was issued following a government decision to reduce the use of disposable plastic utensils by imposing a purchase tax on plates, bowls, cups, straws, knives, forks, spoons and disposable spoons made of plastic or containing plastic.
During the debate in the Knesset plenum, representatives of Torah Judaism attacked the decision of the Finance Committee and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman. In the same way, they tried to recruit the chairman of Ra’am, Mansour Abbas, to fight against the imposition of the tax.
The chairman of Torah Judaism, MK Moshe Gafni, said in a plenary speech: “This is the worst government for the Israeli public, it raises taxes all day, it started with the congestion tax, continued with raising the retirement age for women, and now with the tax on disposable utensils.” .
He said, “We were in the discussions in the finance committee and they said there the hospital directors, you just raise taxes for us. No one will drink water in the hospital in glasses that are not disposable. And what do you tell us that you are not against the ultra-Orthodox public?” To this cruel finance minister that it harms the ultra-Orthodox public, that’s the reason you brought it up only to harm the ultra-Orthodox public. “
Gafni addressed the chairman of Ra’am Mansour Abbas: “I turn to you, Mr. Chairman Mansour Abbas. We have never harmed things that are important to the Arab public, I ask you – vote against this order that harms the ultra-Orthodox public.”
A senior Agudat Yisrael member, MK Meir Porush, said from the standpoint of the isolated: “I have not heard Yisrael Beiteinu offer to impose a tax on alcoholic beverages, because they sometimes cause people to behave violently. The ultra-Orthodox and we are coming to protest that the coalition is letting him hurt us again and again. “
MK Uri Maklev attacked the Ministry of Finance: “It is not the environment that interests you, it is the citizens’ money that interests you. You want the money here at hand and as soon as you have not agreed to a one-day postponement of the adaptation for a month. “
He said, “The Treasury imposes a tax on the ownership of four hundred shekels here, the environment does not interest them but the money interests them. Bathers at the beaches will bring their glass and porcelain vessels from their homes for use at the beach ?! “.
“This tax will hurt the weaker sections,” McLean said. When they came to court and asked for a one-month postponement for adjustment – the state’s answer was that each month is a cost of fifty shekels. That’s what’s in front of you. “
“And not only that, the Treasury put this tax cost into the state’s revenue, if you were honest that the environment is at the forefront of your mind then you would do everything so that it would not be used at all and you would not put the tax cost into the expected revenue to the state. And now, “said MK Maklev.
MK Yaakov who directly attacked Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman and wondered: “Since when does Lieberman have been interested in the environment? That someone would go check in the Treasury office how much plastic goes in the trash in the takeaway dishes that flow and get there non-stop. “The chairman of the finance committee, Alex Kushnir, did not take a lunch in disposable packaging today? Who are you cheating on ?!”
“Lieberman brags about families with children who have chosen a modest and simplistic lifestyle, unlike the arrogance he lives in. Apart from the NIS 400 million he plans to inject into the treasury from this tax, he has another reason to tax the disposable tools: a hobby. Lieberman has a personal hobby For hatred. Once it was against Arabs, today it is against the ultra-Orthodox, MK Asher argued.
MK Israel Eichler said at the hearing: “We all fall into the trap and trap when we talk about the disposable utensils, because that is the intention of the decrees of this poor and humble decree, that we will talk about the disposable, a plate and a plastic spoon. The chairman of the Finance Committee said earlier: “Nine percent of ultra-Orthodox use twenty-seven percent of disposable utensils.” Here lies the dog. Here lies the secret of this sector. It is already enough to accuse them of air pollution, and cut them off. “
Eichler argued that in such a period, the imposition of the tax harms public health: “We are in the Corona period. We are talking about distance, closing the sky and isolating people. The simplest thing to keep diseases away is to use a disposable tool, so why did they do this now? I mentioned last week that the Knesset building was instructed to use only disposable utensils, are the other citizens more reserved than all the Knesset members ?! “.
MK Eichler added: “From the day the decree cuts this decree, all products in all the retail chains have risen by a high percentage, far beyond the one-time tax. This has created a wave of price increases in all food products. The one-time tax gave a cost-of-living booster to all other products.
“The official goal was to clean the world of pollution. Everyone laughs at the ‘Green Finance Minister’, they know how much the man behind this sector cares about air pollution. Whoever wants to clean the world of air pollution, does not fly planes that emit toxic gases, travels in vehicles and floods The roads in polluting trucks, “Eichler said.
MK Eichler addressed the Arab Knesset members in the plenum: “The same Lieberman said many years ago about the Arab MKs: ‘At the end of World War II not only war criminals but also their collaborators were executed at the Nuremberg trials, I hope this will be the fate of the collaborators “In this House. If an Arab MK had said these things about Lieberman, could he have been finance minister in this country?”