Lilach Mor-Gan, head of the Middle Aravah Regional Council, spoke with Arutz-7 today about the difficulties that the new economic plan will place upon her region. Mor-Gan, one of three female regional council heads in Israel, said that her council encompasses seven communities - Idan, Hatzevah, and Ein Yahav in the north; Merkaz Sapir in the center; and Paran, Tzofar, and Tzukim in the south" - with one more on the way in the coming months. The communities dot the highway between the Dead Sea and Eilat.
Mor-Gan explained that yesterday's protests, which included road-blockings and the like, "were in protest of many things - but mainly against the refusal of the decision makers to meet with us and hear us out. This is not democratic; it cannot be that the elected officials refuse to meet the representatives of entire regions that are about to suffer from their decisions... First of all, our area is 100% agriculture-based; we are 420 families that produce 60% of Israel's fresh vegetables for export, as well as 15% of the flowers, and yet for a year and a half they have not allowed us to bring in foreign workers. Israelis don't want to come and work here. For one thing, agriculture itself is not popular, it's 40 degrees Centigrade, 130 kilometers from the nearest urban center, a split day, etc."
She also explained that an 8% tax will be levied on foreign workers, and that their tax breaks have been removed: "Other areas in the Negev still have these tax breaks; how could there be such discrimination? Who heard of such ridiculous things? ... Our area is in the most difficult situation, we are far from everywhere. Even Eilat, which is further away, has already had some of their benefits returned - and it's a city that can support itself somehow. We are ignored from all directions... Sadly, the concept of settlement and the need to make the desert bloom seems to have dropped from our national agenda."