Copy of the government decision
Copy of the government decisionScreenshot

The government approved disbursal Sunday of forty million shekels to strengthen security in Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria, with 34.5 million shekels earmarked for local authorities in Judea and Samaria, and another 5.5 million shekels allocated to boosting start-up stations for the Magen David Adom emergency response organization.

However, the motion for a resolution passed by the Treasury Ministry for government approval contained an unusual clause that never appears in such resolutions, explicitly conditioning the disbursal of the funds on the condition that “the use of such funds will be subject to all laws and for lawful activities only.”

Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) objected to the unique clause, which does not appear in other government budget decisions.

Elkin said that every government decision to allocate money assumes its use to be lawful, and therefore it is obvious, rendering this kind of condition added by the Treasury to be a kind of discrimination. In light of this, Minister Elkin demanded at Sunday’s meeting that the condition be removed, an ultimately the decision was approved without the condition attached.