waiting for the defense budget
waiting for the defense budgetYaniv Nadav/Fladh 90

The Defense Ministry has not yet transferred most of the 2019 budget to the security forces in Judea and Samaria and the Jewish communities there due to an ongoing dispute with the Finance Ministry.

NIS 65 ($18 million) million had been approved for Judea and Samaria this year. However, only NIS 20 ($5.6 million) million has been transferred so far.

This means that dozens of projects and tenders based on this budget have in fact been frozen.

About four months ago it became known that due to a dispute between the Finance Ministry and the Defense Ministry, the latter did not transfer the money to the communities. After some struggles and discussions, part of the sum - NIS 20 million - was released and transferred to the councils, even though the Defense Ministry announced at the time that it would transfer the entire sum within a few days.

Yesha Council Chairman Hananel Dorani responded: "With human life we ​​do not play, the budget for the security components has been approved and all the possible processes have been approved, and it is unreasonable for officials to stop budgets directly related to the lives of the residents of Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. We are working energetically to rectify the situation, and we call on the Defense Ministry to immediately release the budget and not to harm the security of our residents."

The Defense Ministry said in response that "the balance of the budget for the security components component in the confrontation line communities will be transferred as soon as possible, and the significant part of the budget has already been transferred to the communities."