The National Religious Party in Israel seeks removal of military restrictions on movement of Israeli Arabs, encouragement of low-cost housing for young married couples and a free enterprise approach to provision of rental units, an Israeli religious Zionist leader declared here today.
Rabbi Bezalel Cohen, head of the World Religious Zionist movement, outlined the program in an address to 1, 000 delegates and guests attending the 56th annual convention of the Religious Zionist Organization of America in Long Beach. He said the religious party wants low-cost housing to further family stability and private enterprise rental units to free families from “the extremely harsh economics of apartment buying which is quite prevalent in Israel today.” He denied that there was “coercion in the exercise of freedom of religion in Israel.”
Nachum Shamir, Israeli Economic Minister in the United States, told the delegates that since immigrants to Israel were not subjected to any screening process, the “nonrestrictive policy burdens the community with the need to look after the needs of newcomers in health, education, housing, social welfare and employment. At the same time, he said, “considerable strides” were being recorded in the economic field to overcome Israel’s glaring trade imbalances.
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