Gov't okays 2004 budget with deep new cut in welfare

[Mairead]

Closing nearly 20 hours of marathon debate, the government early Tuesday approved the 2004 state budget, offsetting reduced cuts to the defense budget by slashing social welfare benefits by an additional NIS 1.1 billion.

The further cuts to the National Insurance Institute (NII) budget will lower a wide range of welfare and social security payments, but will still fall short of covering the NIS 2 million in proposed cuts that
were restored to the defense budget earlier in the week at the insistence of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/340393.html


For years, Uri Avnery's been on about the stupid cruelty of this. Right-wing colonialism and oppression of the Palestinians are being supported on the backs of Israel's poorest--the antithesis of Torah.