Galant initiates plan for increased land subsidies for Druse IDF veterans
The new approach would raise the ceiling of the subsidy from NIS 190,000 to NIS 300,000.
By NIV ELISDruse protest in Northern Israel.(photo credit: JABER HAMUD)
Construction Minister Yoav Galant on Sunday announced a plan to increase housing subsidies to Druse and Circassians who served in the IDF.“In the Druse and Circassian villages, in my meetings with local residents, I meet the IDF veterans in the deepest of crises, and that is why I have made this one of my primary goals,” Galant said.The plan would offer a 90 percent subsidy on the price of land in Druse and Circassian villages to former soldiers, plus an additional 90 percent subsidy for the development costs.The new approach would raise the ceiling of the subsidy from NIS 190,000 to NIS 300,000. Galant said the government assistance would help patriotic Druse and Circassians start their adult lives.In Sunday’s cabinet meeting, the government approved a NIS 2 billion plan to develop those communities.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that closing economic and opportunity gaps between Jewish and Arab Israelis was imperative.“Any sensible person knows that there are large gaps between the Arab and Jewish populations, resource gaps and disparities in law enforcement, gaps and discrepancies in rights and obligations,” the prime minister said.“These gaps formed over decades, and it is time to make a major national effort to reduce them.”