The Northern Shield Plan Does Not Fortify the North

Translated by Staff

The “Israeli” Walla website shed light on the detail of the "Foreign Affairs and Security" committee meeting in the “Israeli” entity which deliberated on the "Northern Shield" plan. The plan includes a project to build 600 "fortified" rooms in units in the front line settlements located up to one kilometer from the northern borders of Occupied Palestine.

The website stated that the entity’s Ministry of War announced the construction plan, in order to complete the government's decision and budget approval by the entity’s so-called Ministry of Finance, which was taken on the eve of the Jewish holidays.

Lieberman

In this context, Walla quoted Avigdor Lieberman, head of “Yisrael Beiteinu” party, as warning the committee session that “hundreds of thousands of ‘citizens’ in the North are still without fortification”.

Lieberman said, "They deal with this matter as if it were voluntary work for the government, and I remind you that in the background there are reports by the ‘State Comptroller’, each one of which is more lethal than the other. The proportionality between what they have invested in the North and the “Gaza enclave” "is one in seven, this is a commitment from ‘the state’ to its ‘citizens’, but since the government decided on the plan, all that has happened is mere distortion”.

According to the “Israeli” website, that the project – which is estimated at 103 million shekels – is supposed to come into effect immediately through the so-called Engineering and Construction Division of the “Israeli” War Ministry in seven settlements adjacent to the fence in the north, but the commander of the northern region has not yet ratified the list of settlements.

“Last month, the ‘State Control Committee’ headed by Knesset member Ofer Shalah, held a discussion regarding the five million shekels plan, which the government announced more than two years ago, while it had not yet worked on fortifying a single building,” Walla added.

Shalah said that “the disagreements between the Finance and War Ministries, the conflict over authority and the government’s complete impotence led all of this to the fact that there would be ten percent of the northern population without protection from an actual threat; It seems that only ‘the mercy of heaven’ is what will protect the Shlomi settlement on the border during the war”.

Chairman of the "Matteh Escher Regional Council"

In this notion, Chairman of the “Mateh Asher Regional Council”, Moshe Davidovich, and the chairman of the “Front Line Forum”, said, "What is required is 10,000 fortified rooms inside homes. And the fortification needs of the settlements are much greater. I remind the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that the government's decision was to allocate an estimated budget of 500 million shekels every year for the ‘Northern Shield’, and therefore we must strive and be keen on that”.

"Civil and Social Affairs" Officer at the Ministry of War

For his part, the "Civil and Social Affairs" official in the “Israeli” Ministry of War, Michael Biton, said, “Also during the Corona crisis, we are preparing for all security scenarios and our eyes are monitoring threats at all borders. Investment is not enough and requires a multi-year plan to continue the momentum of fortification in the North and prepare for emergencies”. He vowed that these issues are to be allocated in the 2021 budget planning.