Against the backdrop of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's refusal to transfer budgets to Arab authorities through questionable mechanisms, which, according to him, are expected to channel funds to criminal organizations and terrorist entities as well, entire families from the forum "Choosing Life" turned to Minister Smotrich today (Thursday) to support and endorse him following the numerous criticisms he has been facing.
"A scourge that has not been treated for years"
In a letter sent this morning, the families wrote to the Finance Minister: "We seek to strengthen and support you in your principled and professional stance, as you presented it yesterday at the press conference. In recent days, we are hearing relentless attacks against you from various quarters, due to decisions by the Treasury regarding the transfer of budgets to Arab authorities as a result of previous coalition agreements, without proper oversight mechanisms to ensure that state budgets are allocated for proper public purposes and not misused through questionable tenders by actors operating contrary to the law.
"We believe that your decisions are rooted in reality and necessity. This phenomenon of misallocation of public budgets to criminal and terrorist entities is a state crisis, its severity and scope are highly significant, and for years it has not been adequately addressed by enforcement and oversight authorities. The result: hundreds of millions from the state treasury have already been diverted to purposes that have no benefit for the public, to put it mildly."
"To make sure that public budgets are directed to worthy purposes"
The bereaved families further emphasized and noted: "Our stance, as the Forum of Bereaved Families and Terrorism Victims, is that active measures must be taken to monitor the budgets that have already been transferred, and to establish an effective oversight mechanism, in order to ensure that public funds are directed only towards proper purposes."
"The continuation of the current situation and the transfer of budgets without the establishment and implementation of a control and monitoring mechanism that provides a reasonable solution will certainly lead to the ongoing diversion of tens and hundreds of millions of public funds against the public interest, in various ways, thus causing damage and emboldening criminal and terrorist elements."
In conclusion, they said in the forum: "We encourage you to act more strongly to deal with this phenomenon, and this after years of ignoring and indifference of the enforcement agencies towards it. We would also like to strengthen your decision on the issue of stopping the transfer of public funding to institutions that have cells that glorify terrorism and terrorist murderers, and this in order to preserve the law and the rules of proper administration. Proper use of the treasury as well as the national need to fight the criminal and terrorist organizations to the end."
