Finance Minister Yoram Aridor and Leon Dulzin, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executive, clashed in a sharp exchange over funding of Project Renewal, the program to revitalize slum areas in Israel.
Aridor reportedly accused Dulzin and Akiva Levinsky, the Jewish Agency treasurer, of failing to meet the commitments they undertook as equal partners in the project. Under the agreement, the Jewish Agency is in charge of social welfare aspects of Project Renewal, while the government takes care of the physical elements.
Specifically, Aridor declared, a contribution of $5 million, promised by the Jewish Agency five months ago for the rehabilitation of 13 deteriorated neighborhoods, has not yet been transmitted to the government. Dulzin reportedly was furious about both the content and the style of Aridor’s charges, telling Aridor he would not let him treat the Jewish Agency “the way he treated the industrialists and the doctors.”
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