Israel’s economic crisis is beginning to have an impact on the daily lives of citizens with threats of large scale unemployment and the abandonment of vital public services.
Government hospitals may close down in a few days for lack of funds. The government-owned Israel Shipyards on Haifa Bay face imminent collapse for lack of orders.
The Union of Hospital Directors said last night that they were short of heating fuel, blood plasma and food because they cannot pay their debts. The hospitals owe some 3.7 billion Shekels ($6 million).
The Magen David Adom, Israel’s Red Cross, has already cut off supplies of whole blood and plasma to the hospitals because their bills are long overdue. MDA director Amitzur Kfir said his agency is owed $1 million and cannot meet its own payroll.
COMPLAINT BY HOSPITAL DIRECTORS
The hospital directors complained that the Histadrut’s Kupat Holim, the country’s largest health fund, is behind in its payments for hospital services to its members. Histadrut denies this, claiming it has paid its share but that the government has delayed remittances to the hospitals.
Health Minister Mordechai Gur is reportedly urging the Finance Ministry to provide the hospitals with money to pay their bills. The Treasury has been accused of deliberately withholding funds from the Health Ministry as a means of pressure to agree to budget cuts.
GRIM OUTLOOK FOR HAIFA AREA WORKERS
Meanwhile, the outlook for workers in the Haifa area is grim. The giant Ata textile combine, the largest single employer there, won a one-month reprieve from bankruptcy just before the new year when the district court postponed its December 31 shut-down order until February 3.
But there may be no breathing spell for most of the 600 employes of the Haifa Shipyards. They face immediate dismissal because the Defense Ministry has cancelled orders for two large landing craft for the navy, citing budget cuts.
The shipyards were hit earlier by cancellations from local commercial shipowners. Only two tugs for the government Ports Authority remain in its order books and these will require only a small workforce.
Two Zim Lines container ships are being “stretched”– they are cut in half and new midsections added to increase capacity — but when that job is completed the yards will be left with repair and maintenance work which will require no more than 200 workers.
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.
