Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this morning (Sunday, 31 July 2016), at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, addressed the comments made by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls to the effect that he is open to banning foreign funding for mosques in France in the wake of the terror attack in the church in Normandy last week, in which two ISIS terrorists murdered a priest during mass. Netanyahu called attention to the similarity between French efforts to block incitement to terror within its borders and Israel's longstanding efforts in this area.
"We were all shocked by the vicious terrorist attack in France last week. I have heard about a French government discussion on preventing the foreign financing of bodies that harm the security of French citizens. This sounds familiar to us. We are also disturbed by such donations to organizations that deny the State of Israel's right to exist," opened the Prime Minister.
However, Netanyahu pointed out that in fact France itself has supported such anti-Israel organizations, and called for a unification against those who promote terror of any kind, in any place.
"I have requested a preliminary inquiry. In this inquiry we found support from European countries, including France, for several organizations that engage in incitement, call for a boycott of Israel and do not recognize the State of Israel's right to exist. We will complete the inquiry and submit the findings to the French government. We will discuss this with them because terror is terror everywhere and incitement is incitement which, apparently, encompasses the world, governments must be as united as possible in dealing with them."
On another topic, the Prime Minister spoke about a plan to be discussed in the Cabinet meeting for encouraging the growth of the high-tech sector in Israel, utilizing new populations, such as haredim and Arabs.
"Today the Cabinet will discuss a proposed decision to aid in the continued growth of the high-tech sector in Israel. The demand is enormous and the supply of workers is small. We are using various means to increase the supply of trained high-tech workers. We have turned to populations that have not been involved in high-tech until now, such as the ultra-orthodox and – of course – our Arab citizens. We are also trying various means to train our young people, also in mathematics, computer and science studies – this will take time. In the meantime, we are interested in assisting the absorption of a limited number of expert workers, who could help in passing the standardized exams in order to ease the absorption of workers with unique know-how. Today, the Cabinet will make it possible for their spouses to stay in Israel and work here legally. This is what is being done in the Silicon Valley in the United States, and this is giving them considerable strength and, of course, it doubles employment for the local population in the United States. We will do this here as well."