After public pressure was applied to the Prime Minister's Office for cancellation of funding for psychological assistance to children living in the Gaza Belt region, a PMO committee has approved the immediate transfer of 3 million shekels for the cause.
The Knesset's Finance Committee is expected to approve the transfer.
After public pressure was applied to the Prime Minister's Office for cancellation of funding for psychological assistance to children living in the Gaza Belt region, a PMO committee has approved the immediate transfer of 3 million shekels for the cause.
The Knesset's Finance Committee is expected to approve the transfer.
The Counseling Department of the Ministry of Education (Psychological Counseling Service), announced Sunday that counseling in the Gaza Belt would be suspended due to budget cuts after June 19.
MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid) congratulated the government for the decision. Yellin had urgently asked Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) for help on behalf of Gaza Belt residents Sunday, after psychological aid for area children had been cancelled.
Yellin, formerly the Regional Council leader for the Eshkol area, noted in his letter that eleven months' worth of counseling is not enough to counteract the effects of the war.
"Almost a year has passed since Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip. Almost a year has passed since we suffered incessant shelling in the Gaza Belt," he stated. "We suffered the loss of civilians, soldiers, friends and children. [It has been a] year of coping, a year of reconstruction."
The MK noted that the many medical teams, psychologists, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experts have worked hard to bring the region back to a sense of security.
"Unlike in other regions of the country, the color red [i.e. the sirens preceding a rocket attack - ed.] has become part of our lives in the Gaza Belt, part of raising children," he pleaded. "The code red stops breathing and gets our hearts pounding."
Yellin begged the state "not to abandon our children" due to "political problems and disapproval of the state budget for 2015."
"Please retract this irresponsible decision," he urged.