The strike by local authorities in Israel in protest against the Arnona Fund Law is over, but the struggle goes on. The Federation of Local Authorities in Israel announced this morning that the strike that it declared on Sunday and that has lasted four days will end, but that it will instead turn to legal means of fighting the bill, a softened form of which was approved for second and third readings by the Knesset Finance Committee on Monday.
Under the bill, the more arnona (local property rates) that a local authority collects from non-residential properties, the more it will pay into a fund which will be distributed among all the local authorities in accordance with the number of building permits they issue for housing. Heads of local authorities with large commercial and industrial areas objected to the bill, and on Sunday a strike was decided upon in protest against the fact that the bill was proceeding through the Knesset despite their objections.
The bill was approved by the Knesset Finance Committee in a softer version than originally appeared in the draft Economic Arrangements Bill accompanying the state budget. Despite the fact that in this version the amounts that the contributing local authorities would have to pay into the arnona fund were considerably reduced, the Federation of Local Authorities decided to continue to fight the bill.
"The Arnona Fund Bill is a distorted bill that changes the fundamental rules of the relationship between central and local government. This is an inegalitarian law, based on false data, that was introduced by the Ministry of Finance and was promoted in an aggressive and illegal manner. The fund does not achieve the goals that are claimed for it (dealing with the housing crisis), and it is clear that it has been promoted out of extraneous considerations," the Federation of Local Authorities said in a statement.
The Federation has set up a team to coordinate action against the government, and says the campaign will be conducted "without harming residents." At the beginning of the strike, all services in those local authorities that participated were suspended, including the education system in several of them. Following criticism by residents, schools returned to normal activity.
Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has written an angry letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in the wake of the state’s response to the petition filed in the High Court of Justice by the Manufacturers Association of Israel against the local authority strike.
"I read with dismay the response of the state to the petition," Smotrich writes. "This is a wild, illegal strike that represents abuse of power, and it would have been expected that those entrusted with representing the interests of the state and its citizens would not sit on the fence with some feeble, hesitant, and convoluted response, but that you would stand firmly against the strike and demand its immediate cessation.
"Your response, which was filed on your own account, completely contrary to my stance as minister of finance and the respondent to the petition, without my position being heard in the discussion you held, is liable to cause great future damage to the state and the public, if a judicial decision is made that represents a precedent determining that a wild strike such as this is a legitimate means in a campaign against the government and the Knesset."
Smotrich is demanding that the attorney general should immediately approve independent representation in the court that will present his position.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 18, 2023.
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