A special session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, may be called to vote into law yesterday’s Cabinet decision on the imposition of a compulsory 25,000,000-pound ($14,000,000) loan on all Israeli wage and salary earners to help finance housing for immigrants.
The question of whether to recall the Knesset, which is now recessed until October 9, will depend on imminent negotiations to determine how quickly the measure can pass. Should the negotiations point to the likelihood of a lengthy debate, a special session will be called at an earlier date.
As approved by the Cabinet, the loan will amount to an additional 12 percent of the in come taxes paid by Israelis, to be deducted from October of this year to next April from all earnings of not less than 320 pounds ($179) per months.
Government sources today indicated that all the 80,000,000 pounds of Government funds approved for immigrant housing the present fiscal year have been used up. Unless new funds are found, it was said, there will soon be no alternative but to start building temporary blocks of huts with tiled floors and semi-temporary huts of asbestos. The Government is determined not to resume building of maabarot, temporary dwellings, and the 25,000,000-pound compulsory loan–to be collected over a six-month period–will help to solve the problem.
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