Arab local councils in Israel held a strike on Monday in protest at the finance minister's freeze earlier this month on hundreds of millions of shekels to their municipalities, a decision that has prompted accusations of racism.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist-religious government,at least 200 million shekels of Arab municipal funds, saying that these could end up in the hands of what he called "criminal and terrorist elements".
"This is survival money, not a luxury," said Mahameed, explaining that the funds were meant to assist in fighting soaring crime. "This is a struggle for our lives."by Netanyahu on Aug. 9 to release the funds, Smotrich doubled down on his decision, vowing not to "keep turning a blind eye when hundreds of millions of everyone's tax funds were going to criminal groups", in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
Arab citizens, most of whom are descendants of Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the 1948 war surrounding its creation, make up about a fifth of Israel's population. Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel urged Smotrich to release the funds and voiced support for the municipal strike.
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