Middle East Monitor / July 19, 2023
Ben-Gvir claims that some multi-million dollar plans, which have been approved by a previous government to invest in Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, give ‘unprecedented budget and powers to anti-Zionists’.
Two far-right Israeli Ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Yitzhak Wasserlauf of the Otzma Yehudit party, are pushing to axe a plan to improve the lives of Israeli Palestinian citizens, local media reported on Tuesday.
According to Haaretz, both ministers are demanding an end to the plan to raise the socioeconomic level of Palestinian society, and for a reassessment of the decision. Their demand is a continuation of the Israeli government’s intention to approve a transfer of about 130 million shekels ($36m) earmarked for the Arab community to married religious Jewish students instead.
Kan public broadcaster reported that the ministers sent a letter to the government’s secretary saying: “It is not reasonable that a right-wing government works on carrying out agreements inked by the previous coalition government. The government has to work on correcting the decision which gives unprecedented budgets and powers to anti-Zionists.”
The broadcaster said that the protest by Ben-Gvir and Wasserlauf is within the framework of the involvement of different ministries in advancing the implementation of the plan.
