First e-newsletter: Every week after the war of words between the chairman of the Finance Committee, Hanoch Milwidsky, and the top of the Tnufa and Tkuma Directorate, Aviad Friedman, reached an explosion and resulted in a lengthen in shifting NIS 1.1 billion for the rehabilitation of the southern communities broken on October 7, the Finance Committee licensed the funds nowadays, bringing the affair to an finish.
The disaster started following Milwidsky’s call for to obtain funds usage experiences for the yr 2026 from the Tnufa and Tkuma Directorate, with the purpose of finding unutilized budgets and diverting roughly NIS 500 million for the good thing about companies within the North, that are in a deep disaster after just about 3 years of struggle. The committee claimed that the experiences that have been in any case transferred have been partial, and that in particular the principle determine, the funds usage percentages, used to be unnoticed from them.
For 4 consecutive hearings, Milwidsky demanded that govt ministries provide an answer for companies within the North, particularly within the tourism sector which suffered a critical blow and continues to be suffering to recuperate. For this goal, he asked to obtain the execution experiences of the Tnufa Directorate, with the intention to read about if unutilized budgets exist which may be directed towards steady injury grants for companies.
In keeping with the committee, even after repeated requests, the experiences weren’t transferred. Most effective after Milwidsky not on time the funds switch to the Tkuma Directorate have been the 2025 paperwork despatched first, and later additionally the 2026 record. On the other hand, in step with the committee, on this record the column for funds usage percentages used to be unnoticed, in order that it used to be unimaginable to be told from it about the true scope of execution.
However, the Tnufa and Tkuma Directorate claimed that the federal government’s resolution at the switch of NIS 5.6 billion used to be made most effective on June 6, and the cash used to be transferred to the directorate most effective final Wednesday. Subsequently, it used to be now not conceivable to offer the execution of budgets that had now not but been won.
The deputy director-general of the Top Minister’s Place of business, Shir Rabinovich, showed the issues right through the listening to and stated that she and Friedman met final week at the factor, and an extra assembly will happen this coming Wednesday.
Nonetheless, the committee criticized the truth that even the execution record for the tens of hundreds of thousands of shekels already transferred final yr used to be now not absolutely offered.
Milwidsky defined right through the listening to the background of his resolution to lengthen the funds: “This is a request that I delayed until now for a very simple reason. We held several discussions here regarding the situation of businesses in the North. The fact that after three years routine has still not returned to the North indicates that there is a continuous blow here. But this continuous blow is not reflected in the treatment that businesses in the North receive and in the existing compensation mechanisms.
“The Belongings Tax Fund, by means of its nature, is aware of tips on how to atone for struggle injury everyday. However between operations, there are intervening time sessions right through which there’s a wartime regimen. Many of the companies there rely on tourism, and the North merely didn’t select itself up. Past all of the knowledge, somebody strolling across the North sees it with their very own eyes. We stated that it may well be conceivable to offer reimbursement within the structure of a continuing injury grant.
“Week after week we held discussions here. In most of them, they did not even bother to send a representative. And even when they arrived, they mainly explained to us how wonderful what was done in the past was, but did not say a word about what is happening now and what they intend to do from here onward. There is quite a bit of money sitting in these directorates that was not utilized to the end, and certainly not in the year 2026. We asked to perform a diversion of unutilized funds for the benefit of the thing that is most needed now – the businesses in the North.
“To my nice remorseful about, two weeks have handed since then and there used to be now not even one certain interplay from the directorate. We asked the cheap usage record, and till this second we’ve got now not won it. This morning we won the cheap usage record for 2025. We additionally asked the 2026 record, and we have been advised that it’s unimaginable to generate this type of record. After all, when the record arrived, they only deleted the execution knowledge from it. The column of usage percentages they only got rid of. Which means that even now we don’t in reality have the cheap usage record from which one thing will also be realized.”
The pinnacle of the Tnufa and Tkuma Directorate, Aviad Friedman (credit score: Liran Levinovich)
In keeping with him: “On account of this loss of cooperation, I used to be pressured to lengthen a switch that used to be if truth be told supposed for the South. I was hoping that this lengthen would create pressured cooperation, that it could get started some procedure, some discussion. However the one procedure that came about this week from the directorate’s aspect used to be briefings. Abruptly I began receiving telephone calls from heads of government within the South, citizens from the Gaza envelope got here to me claiming that I’m blockading the rehabilitation and preventing the South. That is what they have been engaged in – briefings to heads of government and to the click. This used to be a tactical step that I was hoping would create pressured cooperation and assist discover a resolution.”
As said, on the conclusion of the listening to, after it used to be agreed to proceed monitoring the invention of answers for companies within the North, the contributors of the Finance Committee unanimously licensed the switch of the NIS 1.1 billion to the Tkuma Directorate.
