Aid poured into the grief-stricken town of Kiryat Shemona over the weekend and more has been promised. Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir visited the town today to discuss the possibility of investments in new industrial enterprises there, though he stressed there was no problem of unemployment.
Sapir told the Cabinet yesterday that IL 30 million has been ear-marked for the development of Kiryat Shemona which was a frequent target of terrorist assaults even before last Thursday’s massacre of 16 local residents and two others. The government acted following widely publicized criticism by townspeople of what they charged was apathy and negligence by the authorities toward their plight in the past.
The Jewish Agency Executive decided at a meeting today that it would build three new kindergartens and two day-care centers for children at Kiryat Shemona and to speed up the con- struction of a religious high school. Proposals were heard at the meeting to establish an additional absorption center in the town and a home for the aged. The Executive is also considering recruiting volunteers from abroad to serve there as social workers. Acting chairman Leon Dulzin is expected to visit Kiryat Shemona in the next few days to consult with Mayor Avraham Aloni and the town council on other aid measures. The Zionist Executive is Launching a major propaganda drive titled “Zionism and Terrorism.”
Kiryat Shemona has a large immigrant population of North African extraction. The Jewish Agency operates an absorption center in the town and high schools established by the Agency’s education foundation. Today’s meeting of the Agency Executive undertook to consider ways to enlarge the existing projects and initiate new ones. The United Jewish Appeal Executive met in Jerusalem Friday and conveyed to Kiryat Shemona its sympathy and determination to continue development projects in that town.
Meanwhile the Yanosz Kortzhak school, which was the first building occupied by the terrorists when they invaded Kiryat Shemona last Thursday morning, re-opened today and most of its pupils attended classes. The damage, mostly broken windows, has been repaired. But soldiers were stationed on the roof and border police patrolled the school grounds.
KNESSET TO DISCUSS TRAGEDY
Several thousand high school students attended a mass rally in Tel Aviv today on the Kiryat Shemona tragedy. They were addressed by Mayor Shlomo Lehat, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren and Likud leader Menachem Beigin. A number of students who visited Kiryat Shemona, since the massacre described what they saw. Lehat said that hundreds of Kiryat Shemona youth have been invited to spend several days with Tel Aviv families.
In other actions, the city of Haifa has decided to “adopt” Kiryat Shemona. The Jerusalem municipality has ordered all necessary assistance for reconstruction. As a first step it has turned over to Kiryat Shemona funds ear-marked for the Mimuna festival, a traditional observance of North African Jews during the Passover week which was cancelled because of Thursday’s tragedy.
The Housing Ministry has placed IL I million at the disposal of the Kiryat Shemona municipality to aid the families of massacre victims. The Minister of Housing, in addition, has offered 17 flats to families whose apartments were damaged during the battle with the terrorists. In the town itself, electric workers began repairing downed power lines. Interior Minister Yosef Burg said he had decided to grant Kiryat Shemona (and Upper Nazareth) the status of full-fledged towns even though their population fell below the 20,000 minimum usually required for this status.
At the same time. Likud leader Arik Sharon has demanded a full-scale inquiry into what he alleges were blunders by the army command that led to the terrorist infiltration of Kiryat Shemona. The Likud has called for a Knesset session this week to discuss the attack and its repercussions. The Knesset will convene in special session Wednesday to discuss the Kiryat Shemona tragedy.
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