Likud MKs slam PM, Steinitz over rise in gas prices

MK Danon tells finance minister during party meeting "the public is crying out and you are not listening."

By JPOST.COM STAFF
311_Yuval Steinitz (photo credit: Tamar Matsafi)
311_Yuval Steinitz
(photo credit: Tamar Matsafi)
Likud MKs on Monday attacked Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a faction meeting over the decision to raise price of gas and water.
Social Affairs and Health Committee chairman MK Haim Katz turned to Netanyahu during the meeting and said " with this budget you will not be prime minister for another term."
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MK Danny Danon said to Steinitz "the public is crying out and you are not listening. We are speaking in the name of the people, and you still don't listen.
Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan also criticized the decision to raise the price of gas. "If the price of gas needs to be increased, then there is a need to at least subsidize public transport prices. This way it will be more accepted by the public," Erdan said.
Last week, over half of the Knesset – coalition and opposition members alike – signed on to a letter protesting the recent hike in gas prices that brought fuel to an all-time high. Ronit Tirosh (Kadima) was behind the petition, which called on Netanyahu to “lower the gas taxes and immediately stop the rise in gas prices.”
Only two years ago, Tirosh complained in the letter, gas prices stood at less than five shekels per liter, whereas today, they stand at NIS 7.26 per liter. “The rise in the gas prices, after the increase in cost of water, housing, basic goods, and municipal taxes have created an impossible situation, and there are no shortage of examples these days of what can happen when the public collapses under the burden of government rulings,” the MKs continued. “We call on the Prime Minister to listen to the public and to show sensitivity to their distress, and to cancel the recent increase in gas prices.”
Rebecca Anna Stoil contributed to this report