Demonstrations against Israel’s rising unemployment were held in this city and at the all-Arab city of Nazareth.
About 100 persons gathered for a demonstration in front of the Labor Exchange here, when a watchman at a nearby synagogue started to remove from a wall of the house of worship a poster announcing the rally for the jobless. The unemployed tried to interfere with the watchman, causing a near riot. Police dispersed the demonstrators, but no one was arrested. In Nazareth, where 1,000 unemployed are registered at the local Labor Exchange, about 100 persons staged an orderly protest demonstration. That action had been sponsored by local Communists.
Meanwhile it was estimated today in Treasury circles that Israel’s deficit by April 1, the end of the current fiscal year, will reach about 400,000,000 pounds ($133,000,000). A few months ago, the Treasury had estimated that the deficit would be 300,000,000 pounds ($100,000,000).
At the same time, however, there was encouraging news from the Government’s Statistical Office. The latter reported that the cost-of-living index continues to drop. The statisticians said that the cost-of-living index had dropped in January, 1967, by 01 point below the figure of January, 1966, and that a further drop was expected to be shown in the figures for February of this year.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
