In letter to Netanyahu, Jerusalem major says less talk, more action needed as capital hit by recent terror wave
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Sunday wrote a stern letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after months of negotiations with the Finance Ministry aimed at budgeting additional funds for the capital city broke down.
Barkat claimed Netanyahu’s support of Jerusalem was insincere, and demanded the prime minister personally intervene in the situation, Channel 2 reported.
“It’s the end of public statements and warnings about the importance of Jerusalem and its status. The time has come for action. Continuing to ignore Jerusalem’s needs is a victory for terrorism,” Barkat wrote.
In the letter, the mayor said that, like previous years, the city was again “forced to fight with the Finance Ministry in order to receive the reasonable budget that it deserves.”
Barkat called the strengthening of Jerusalem “the primary national goal,” and said he expected a government ministry to back the capital without “forcing us to repeatedly beg for Jerusalem’s sake.”
The mayor said that especially in light of the recent wave of terrorism and violence, Jerusalem’s residents and business owners needed backing.
Barkat proposed several measures including an increased 2016 budget, aid packages to local businesses struggling due to the recent violence and implementing a previously agreed upon 5-year plan to strengthen the economy of the capital city.
“The message must be loud and clear; precisely during these hard times, the government must come together and decisively increase its support for Jerusalem,” he concluded.
Netanyahu issued a response saying the government had invested millions of shekels in the development of Jerusalem, and that his office was surprised to receive Barkat’s letter
He said that in 2014, the state directly gave the Jerusalem municipality 420 million shekels, and 450 million in 2015.
The money, Netanyahu said was “in addition to the massive investment in the road and light rail infrastructures and other benefits enjoyed by the city within the government policy to develop Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post