Finance Minister Avraham Shohat signed an agreement with Druse leaders this week, ending a crisis over Druse demands for more government funding.
The agreement, which was signed Sunday, ended a month long conflict that a times turned violent. It also averted threats by Druse Knesset members to support no-confidence motions in the government.
Under the agreement, some $50 million will be added immediately to the 1995 budget for Druse local councils. The group will also get up to $33 million in additional aid under the agreement.
Israel’s 80,000 Druse citizens, clustered in 18 villages in the north of the country, have been complaining that the Israeli government is allotting them only a fraction of the sums given to Jewish development towns. Another 15,000 Druse live in villages on the Golan Heights.
The Druse are ethnic Arabs who split from Islam in the 11th century to form a new religion. The majority of the Druse community in the Middle East, an estimated 200,000 total, live in Lebanon and Syria.
Since the 1948 War of Independence, the Druse in Israel have served in the Israeli army, siding with Israel in its conflicts with its Arab neighbors.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
