Local authorites confirmed an agreement of understandings with the Finance Ministry Thursday evening on a 2.4 billion shekel program of grants to help the authorities balance their budgets. Arab, Druze and Circassian authority heads objected to the agreement, saying that the distribution of funds was not equitable.
The program was credited with preventing a protest in Jerusalem earlier this week in which garbage trucks were supposed to tie up traffic. Chairman Shlomo Bouhbout of the Union of Local Authorities welcomed the agreement, adding, "if the Treasury does not honor the understandings, we will put on a stronger struggle."