Israel to inject NIS 660m into minority communities
Cabinet okays improvements to transportation infrastructure and industrial zones in Arab towns, tourism development in Nazareth
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The government okayed a financial package aimed at pumping NIS 660 million into minority communities in Israel next year, including projects that will target transportation, economic growth, and tourism.
The $168 million proposal was put forward by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and will mostly benefit the country’s 1.8 million Arabs and a smattering of other minority communities, the Prime Minister’s Office said in statement after the cabinet voted the measure through.
The cabinet also approved a plan to lower housing prices for first-time homebuyers.
Over half the cash for minority communities will be spent on improving transportation infrastructure. Some NIS 300 million is to be spent on upgrading intercity and intracity roads.
Another NIS 120 million ($30 million) is to go toward subsidies for public transportation, the completion of public transportation infrastructure and improving accessibility of information in Arabic.
NIS 40 million ($10 million) of the package will be used to help push through existing plans for the development of industrial zones in minority communities and another NIS 8 million ($2 million) will be put into training programs for in-demand professions.
In a move to drive business development, The Chief Scientist’s Office is to increase grants — worth NIS 5 million ($1.27m) — from 50% to 85% for start-ups based in minority communities.
The plan will also put a focus on tourism and in particular on the Old City of Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab town and holy to Christians as the childhood home of Jesus.
A further NIS 15-25 million ($3.8-6.37 million) will go to completing ongoing sports fields and sports facility construction projects.
Two new police facilities are to be opened in the coming year at a cost of NIS 70 million ($17.9 million) and street safety and anti-drug programs are to be continued, with some NIS 100 million ($25.4 million) invested in improving law enforcement infrastructure.
Coordination and implementation of the plan is to involve the ministries of Finance, National Infrastructures, Transportation and Road Safety, Public Security, Tourism, Negev and Galilee Development, Construction, Interior, Education and Economy.
As well as the allocated budgets, two ministerial director-general committees are to be formed in 2015. One, from the Interior Ministry, will plan how to increase independent revenues for minority sector local councils, and a Finance Ministry committee will investigate construction and housing solutions.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that a five-year plan that is to end at the end of this year met needs in 13 minority sector communities where it improved public transportation, employment, personal security, and community planning.
A new five-year plan for all Arab sector communities is to be submitted for cabinet approval within 120 days.
Housing plan sails through
The cabinet also approved an affordable housing plan that aims to lower housing prices in sought-after areas of the country.
The so-called target-pricing plan is projected to reduce the price of some apartments to 20% below the current market price.
First-time homebuyers will be given priority under the plan over those who are looking to move up the property ladder.
The program will affect units priced at under NIS 19,000 per square meters to prevent the benefit plan from being applied to luxury housing projects.
Over the course of 2015 some 12,000 housing units in high-demand areas are expected to be included in the plan, joining a total 4,000 units in Rosh Ha’ayin and Modi’in that will be priced under the new regulations by the end of 2014.
The arrangement is intended to help curtail ballooning real-estate prices that have kept many young families from being able to purchase homes, leading to a housing crisis.
It was originally proposed alongside a rival plan that would have slashed taxes for certain first-time buyers, but that plan was shelved after its chief proponent, Yair Lapid, was canned from the finance minister position earlier this month.
