Last Update: 20/10/2004 08:52

Study: Settlements get more aid money than other towns
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/490957.html
By Yulie Khromchenko, Haaretz Correspondent



West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements received at least twice as much money
in Interior Ministry financial aid as did other Jewish communities in 2002
and 2003 - and three times as much as Israeli Arab communities, according
to a Tel Aviv University study released Tuesday.



The report, which was published by public policy professor Dr. Dan
Ben-David and economics professor Dr. Yuval Erez, studied the "balancing
grants" the Interior Ministry gives local councils that have trouble
balancing their budgets.

The study found that the financial imbalance in favor of the settlements
amounted to a quarter of a billion shekels in each of the two years
studied.

The Gaza Coast Regional Council, which received a balancing grant of an
average NIS 3,598 per resident in 2003, was among the top financial aid
recipients. Other settlements heading the list include Kiryat Arba (NIS
3,273) and Beit El (NIS 2,455), both in the West Bank.

By contrast, Netivot and Dimona - low-income towns in the Negev - in 2003
received a per-person average of NIS 1,323 and NIS 1,112, respectively.

There was also disparity within the same region, the study found: Jewish
communities in the south of the country received balancing grants that were
between 35 percent and 46 percent larger than those received by their Arab
neighbors.

The inequality persists also when towns on opposite sides of the Green Line
are ranked on the same socio-economic level.

The Hebron Hills regional council in the West Bank received a balancing
grant of an average NIS 4,254 per resident in 2003. But Beit Shemesh, which
is located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and is classified as being in the
same socio-economic class as the Hebron Hills, received an average NIS 293
per resident the same year - a gap of 1,350 percent.

Balancing grants were cut last year, which local authorities in crisis say
significantly contributed to their inability to pay the salaries of
municipal workers.