Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu on Sunday participated in the cornerstone-laying ceremony for a Dimona neighborhood named after the Prime Minister's late brother, Lt.-Col. Yoni Netanyahu.
Also attending the ceremony were Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Construction and Housing Minister Haim Katz, and Dimona Mayor Benny Biton.
"What we see here is a battle for every apartment," Netanyahu began. "If once people wanted to leave, now they want to come. And we are reviving the Negev, making the Negev flourish, building the Negev, and not just this place. This is a great change, from the metropolitan area of Be'er Sheva, through every community and the Negev mountains."
He continued, "This warms my heart, because I used to walk here a lot, and Yoni used to walk here a lot, and he loved the Negev, and I loved - and love - the Negev. And I always had a question inside me: how can it be that we are cramming everything into the Greater Tel Aviv area, in Hadera-to-Gadera, and the main area of the state is the main area you see here around you? You don't see such a thing in the Greater Tel Aviv area. How can it be that we are not building here at reasonable prices, with good infrastructure? How can it be... It cannot be, so we did it. And we did it together, Benny, with your leadership and your vision."
"The son of our friend Gabi Lalouche is sitting here, whom we do not forget for a moment, nor your mother. We remember. But here comes the great breakthrough, and this great breakthrough warms my heart. It is a great honor and very moving that a neighborhood within this immense development is named after Yoni, who surely would have saluted you. I salute you, Benny, and we all salute you."
