Settlers in West Bank receive higher budgets than other Israelis

A member in the Israeli Knesset revealed that the settlers in the occupied West Bank settlements receive large funds from the Israeli government, which are larger than those received by other Israelis.

In an article published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz yesterday, in response to what was published by Gershon Mesika, chairman of Shomron Regional Council of settlements in the occupied West Bank, in which he claimed that the settlers in the West Bank are third class citizens, MK Stav Shaffir said: “The funds Mesika gets for his citizens are amounts that the South and North residents would never dream of.”

According to Shaffir, in the beginning of the year, the settlement authority budget amounted to 58 million shekels ($18 million) and has, since then, been increased to nearly 700 million shekels ($200 million), indicating that 75 per cent of the budget is being transferred to the West Bank settlements, as if there are no settlements in the Negev, Galilee and the Golan Heights.

She added: “Under the security pretext, millions are being transferred from outside the budget, although there is no relation between them and security.”

“Facts refute Mesika’s claims as there are a number of stakeholders who blackmail the state budget and spend from it as if it was their private money.”

She revealed that about 87 per cent of the budget items are secretly changed after they have been ratified in the Knesset by the Finance Committee which is chaired by Nissan Slomiansky, of the Jewish House Party.