The Israel Cabinet today summoned the Knesset financial committee for an urgent meeting on Tuesday to discuss the desperate financial situation of the Jewish Agency which is now facing a deficit of $60,000,000, due mainly to the expenditures connected with the absorption of immigrants.
The financial committee will also discuss problems dealing with the development of the Dead Sea potash works and with the allocation of part of the loan obtained from the Export-Import Bank in the United States for the development of the natural resources of the Dead Sea.
The government’s economic policies were attacked here last night by Dr. Fritz Bernstein, head of the General Zionist Party in Israel. Speaking at a press conference, Dr. Bernstein charged that the government’s present policy served only to keep foreign investments from finding their way into the Jewish state. At the same time, he revealed that the General Zionists are prepared to enter the Cabinet if adequate provisions are made for a “relatively stable economic policy.”
He also attacked the government for permitting the duty-free importation of certain manufactured goods, insisting that only raw materials should be imported without a customs tax, in order that the position of local industry might be strengthened. Asserting that the government was spending $224,000,000 for non-developmental expenditures, he declared that the country could not afford such sums for “the army and the salary of government officials.”
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.
