Minister of Commerce and Industry Ariel Sharon maintained Monday that there is no “hard” unemployment in Israel at present, “just pockets here and there.” He also claimed there is “a problem of people not wanting to work.”
Sharon, a Herut hardliner, angrily denied claims that money invested in West Bank settlements was money denied to development towns inside Israel. Such claims have been made by Labor Party and other politicians against the
But Sharon, addressing workers at Migdal HaEmek, said that in 1985, only $15 million was invested in industry in the West Bank and Gaza Strip compared to $180 million in development
He said another $111 million went to kibbutz-owned industries and a further $161 million to Histadrut-owned industries. “I do not begrudge any industry… It was wrong though to argue that these various industries competed to the exclusion of each
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