An allocation of $6.256 million for erecting buildings to house future industries in the administered territories was approved Sunday by the Executive of the Commerce and Industry Ministry’s Investment Center, despite objections by the Ministry of Economics and Planning. Most of the approved sum — $4.981 — was designated for expanding existing constructions.
Moshe Dovrat, Director-General of the Ministry of Economics and Planning, charged that the approval was politically motivated. The Executive is headed by Yoram Belisovsky, Acting Director-General of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which is headed by Ariel Sharon of Likud.
Dovrat said the investment was disproportionate to the number of residents in the areas Whereas other parts of the country lack buildings for industry and other assistance for troubled plants, he said, the government now pours money into the industry in the territories, which is essentially primitive.
“This is an artificial way of creating a supply of buildings in the territories, thus promoting the transfer of Jewish industries from Israel proper to the West Bank, and indirectly encouraging Jewish settlements in the territories,” Dovrat charged.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the allocations approved were only a small part of an overall $28 million allocated to support the industries all over the country.
LABOR PARTY OFFICIALS CONCERNED
Haaretz reported Monday that senior officials of the Labor Party were concerned over the attempt of “the heads of the Likud to create facts, before the transfer of the Premiership to Yitzhak Shamir” next month.
Haaretz reported that Premier Shimon Peres was enraged when he heard that Shamir intended to appoint, after the rotation, Minister-Without-Portfolio Yosef Shapira of Morasha as Minister in charge of diaspora Jewry and Jewish settlements in Eretz Yisrael. Otniel Schneller, the secretary of the Council of Jewish Settlements in the Territories, is reportedly to be appointed as Shamir’s advisor on settlements.
The paper quoted senior Ministers in the Labor Party that any additional functions in the government must be approved by the coalition partners.
Regarding the Schneller appointment, the Labor sources said it was quite clear to the Likud partners that the issue of settlements would remain under the responsibility of Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
“Shamir’s ideas amount to an attempt to turn the National unity government after October 15 into a Likud government,” the Ministers said, according to Haaretz.
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