The Minister of the Negev, the Galilee and National Resilience, Yitzhak Wasserlauf, sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this evening (Wednesday) in which he announced that his ministry's budgets will be used exclusively for the emergency plans relevant to combat. The move follows the public criticism of the government ministries that their activities are not necessary during the war.
In the letter Wasserlauf clarified that "all the funds that have not yet been spent - with an emphasis on those that are not in the base of the budget - intended for the ministry's activities, those that have been already transferred to the ministry, and those that will be transferred in the future, will be used exclusively for the emergency plans relevant to fighting, strengthening and assisting the authorities in the threatened areas, the families and the affected citizens and the evacuees".
Among other things, Wasserlauf stated in his letter that immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities, the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience turned its activities from routine to emergency, and was one of the first to transfer budgets to the Gaza Strip envelope and the authorities receiving evacuees from that area. According to him, "All units of the Ministry of the Negev and the Galilee have been working hand in hand since the beginning of the fighting, together with the local authorities and settlements, as well as with civil bodies, in order to respond to the urgent needs arising from the territory."
The minister also wrote that he instructed to freeze all the plans on the agenda: "All the plans of the ministry that have not yet been implemented were frozen immediately with the outbreak of the war. The ministry continues to work with the relevant bodies to build emergency plans at this stage until the end of 2023, and later the work plans for 2024 will be updated."