Money not only for Jews

[Violet_Crumble]

By Shuli Dichter

The director of the Entrepreneurship Development Center, Mati, in the Western Galilee, Henri Biton, said "we don't sense any problem with this," (Haaretz, August 13), when asked about the allotment of aid from Mati to small businesses owned by Jews only, in compliance with the demands of Jewish donors from abroad.

In a properly-run state, the center should have refused politely, and said to the donor: "Thank you, but no, thank you. Our regulations don't allow us to discriminate among candidates for receiving loan funds on an ethnic basis," and given back the money.

Indeed, the Industry and Trade Ministry canceled the directing of money from this fund through Mati, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The giving of "designated funds" only to Jews has always been the practice in many infrastructure and social initiatives in Israel. At the entrances to many locales, a large sign has been erected on which the symbol of the Jewish Agency has been blazoned alongside the symbol of the Housing Ministry, as testimony to the joint funding of the infrastructures in the locale.

There is no such sign at the entrance to Arab locales, because neither the Jewish Agency nor Housing Ministry has invested in infrastructures there.

It has been reported in the media that of the NIS 4 billion the government intends to invest in rehabilitating the Galilee following the war, NIS 1.5 billion will come from donations from Jews abroad. This contribution should not be taken lightly. However, the government must see this money as part of the state's income, so that it will have the right to dictate the targets in which this sum will be invested, in accordance with its interests.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/764425.html