The morning session on the same plan crashed because the right wing ministers objected to the part about improving the conditions of Arabs in mixed cities. This resulted in focusing the entire plan strictly on municipalities which are 80% or more Arab.
MK Ayman Odeh (Joint Arab List) was torn between having to acknowledge the $3.85 billion gift that no other Zionist government had ever handed his sector, and the fact that this is the loathed, right-wing, “apartheid” government doing the giving. And so, he told reporters the new plan “is the result of a longstanding public fight that’s far from being over. The program was built in close cooperation between the Joint List and the Committee of Heads of Arab Local Municipalities. The fact that the plan includes a substantially incremental budget together with substantive change in some of the allocations mechanisms in various ministries, could be a first step to reduce the socio-economic gaps endured by the country’s Arab population.”
And then Odeh added, because he had to, “We must continue to struggle and follow the implementation of this program. Despite our many past disappointments, and the fact that we have no illusions about the racist policies of the current government, we hope the professional echelon at the Finance Ministry will continue to set the tone and that we’ll witness the full implementation of the plan. We will continue our struggle for the sake of equality for all citizens of this country.”
Which is still biting the hand that feeds you, but not so hard that it would make the shekels drop into a different bowl.