Cities Go on Strike to Protest Gov’t Tax Transfer Plan

YERUSHALAYIM

View of an empty classroom at a school in Tel Aviv, during a general strike of some municipalities, on Monday. (Flash90)

A strike by municipalities in protest of the government plan, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to transfer funds from wealthier cities to less affluent ones, entered its second day on Tuesday.

The Federation of Local Authorities, which represents around 200 municipalities, launched the open-ended strike on Monday, and included cities like Tel Aviv, Holon, Ramat Gan, Givatayim, Kfar Saba, Ra’anana, Rishon LeTzion, Herzliya, Hod Hasharon, Modiin, Ramle, Ness Ziona, Ashdod, Hadera, Haifa, Nesher, Beit She’an, Kiryat Ono, Shoham, Ganei Tikva, Yokne’am, Maale Gilboa and Eilat.

Several regional councils were also reportedly participating in the strike, which is affecting basic services for residents and shuttering the education system. Yerushalayim, Lod, Ashkelon and Charish are not participating.

At issue is a proposed business property tax fund that would see wealthier municipalities subsidize lower-income communities to incentivize the construction of affordable housing.

“This law is not acceptable to the Federation of Local Authorities,” Modiin-Maccabim-Reut Mayor Chaim Bibas said on Sunday. “We oppose it and have opposed it from the beginning. It is contrary to any concept of municipal rule and central government-municipal government relations.”

Smotrich stood firm following the start of the shutdown, saying at a press conference that “we will not give in to threats and blackmail and will act professionally for the benefit of the State of Israel and the citizens of Israel,” Channel 12 reported.

“We must not give in to threats and violence. We are on the way to major struggles against tremendous market forces that concentrate in their hands a tremendous power that we are going to take from them – to break up centralization and monopolies,” the minister noted.

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