Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will meet on Sunday evening with Arab municipal leaders to discuss his decision to delay the transfer of funds to the Arab sector. The meeting was initiated by Shin Bet director Ronen Bar.
Maariv reported that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voiced his opposition to the meeting. According to those close to the Minister. "Following the cabinet meeting, the apparent decision is to transfer the funds this week, and since he believes that in this amount of time, it is impossible to monitor the direction of the funds, he does not want to lend a hand and have a part in these decisions and conduct, after it was found that the funds supposedly found their way to criminal organizations.
Minister Ben-Gvir hopes his fellow cabinet member, Finance Minister Smotrich, will stand on his demands to transfer the funds under monitoring and supervision."
Finance Minister Smotrich's office stated: "We will make clear that this was a coalition demand from Mansour Abbas in the previous government and an additional advance that Ayelet Shaked granted to Mansour Abbas as Interior Minister beyond the equity grants. These funds are frozen until there will be an inquiry and an oversite system."