Finance Ministry D- G steps down
Keren Turner- Eyal, directorgeneral at the Finance Ministry, said she was stepping down on Sunday in what is the latest resignation among top economy sector officials as the country struggles with a recession caused by the novel coronavirus crisis.
Turner- Eyal was appointed in May by Finance Minister Israel Katz. However, the two have disagreed about the best way to support the economy in the face of restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the COVID- 19 disease.
Despite the ministry not giving a reason for Turner- Eyal’s departure, a source close to her told the N12 news that she had complained that “decisions at the finance ministry are not made in a proper way. There are no professional and thorough discussions. There are only decisions handed down from on- high – the Prime Minister’s Office.”
At her departure, Katz thanked Turner- Eyal for her “years of mutual work
[ with him] in the ministries of Transportation and Finance, which led to many achievements that influenced every home in Israel.”
She thanked Katz for placing his trust in her and said she was certain “he will lead a broad economic plan to handle the financial crisis following the COVID- 19 outbreak.”
The impression given in the broadcast was that Katz himself is forced to work in a difficult set of circumstances and that his alleged behavior towards officials who question policy – through threats and raising his voice – should be viewed in that context.
intubated. The death toll was at 1,980.
In response to Alroy- Preis’s comments, Alternative Prime Minister Benny Gantz said that his party would push to open private, non- customerfacing businesses as early as this week – within the Purple Ribbon outline. He also said that the country should prepare to open preschools within the coming days.
“The decline we are seeing in morbidity is good but it has had a heavy price on hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their livelihoods; on businesses that are on the verge of shutting down; and on the hundreds of thousands of children who are not receiving a proper education,” he said.
“This time, we must not recklessly leave the quarantine, but it is possible in the coming days to give a limited answer to establishments where there is no danger of illness.”
He said that opening up small businesses that do not greet the public – and providing parents of pre- schoolers with an answer – could help the entire economy and save the country billions of shekels without increasing health risk.
NA’AMAT PRESIDENT Hagit Peer also called on the government to vote against the ministry and allow pre- schoolers to return to their classrooms.
“According to research, toddlers are almost non- infectious,” Peer said. “Hundreds of thousands of parents in Israel are at a loss while trying to maintain their livelihoods and [ simultaneously] create a daily routine for their children.”
She added that being out of school is bad for children’s mental and social development.
“In terms of the education system, it is clear that it is not possible to start a job without first opening preschools for children aged 0- 6 and then lower grades,” Alroy- Preis said during the briefing. “We do this in a measured and careful way and we separate it into different stages. This will be done together with the Education Ministry, to ensure there is a more careful outline than previously.”
She said that the idea of serologically testing teachers is being considered.
Alroy- Preis presented the details of what she defines as the “next closure- prevention strategy.”
In the first stage of the exit strategy, non- customer- facing businesses will be able to operate. Restaurants could provide takeaway and beaches and nature reserves could open up. At the same time, children between the ages of newborn and six could return to school.
This stage would also remove the restriction of traveling 1,000 meters from home.
“We do not want to remain in a quarantine where people are not allowed to move,” she said.
With that, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not push to continue the state of emergency when it comes up for a vote at the Knesset on Wednesday, according to media reports. If this is the case, then protests would resume as they had been before Yom Kippur.
Stage two would reopen classrooms for students in grades one through four, as well as alternative medicine services. Stage three would open up customer- facing businesses, retail, bed and breakfasts and synagogues. Stage four would mean restaurants, coffee houses and gyms and stage five hotels and pools.
Stage six would allow students in grades five through 12 to go back to school.
Stage seven would resume culture, leisure, events and concerts. Stage eight would allow event halls to operate and stage nine would allow for sporting events with an audience and for clubs and bars to resurface.
According to Alroy- Preis, the epidemiological logic of these stages is that places where there is a low risk of infection will open early and those with a high risk will stay closed until later stages. The higher risk places are those in which people do not wear masks or that are inside.
But she cautioned that in order for the exit strategy to work, there is a principle that cannot be broken: to manage Israel’s opening of the economy based on morbidity, not on dates.
She answered a question from The Jerusalem Post about whether populism would get in the way of carrying out the program with the simple answer: “I am not sure.”
Her answer was given while a meeting was taking place between Netanyahu, Gantz, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, Finance Minister Israel Katz, Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay and coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu.
It was at that meeting that Netanyahu warned against such populism. “You were all against closure” and the disease spiked. “I had to fight for closure and now everyone sees that it has led to a dramatic drop in morbidity,” he said.
“Now, we have not even received the data,” he continued, “and we are already speaking about reducing restrictions and opening fast – fast without care. I will not accept this.”
His comments were revealed by Channel 12.
Netanyahu’s comments were likely partially in response to Blue and White ministers who are pushing to open up before the Health Ministry recommends, but also against comments made Sunday by Coronavirus Knesset Committee chairwoman Yifat Shasha- Biton. She has called on the government to open up now.
“We need to open up now, not in a week,” she said in an interview Sunday morning with Army Radio. “There are restrictions that everyone knows have no epidemiological logic. Why wait? Society is crashing.”
Alroy- Preis said that in the first three stages, all of Israel will be viewed as a “red zone,” until which time the country will roll out the traffic light program and there will be differences between activities in cities and towns depending on whether the infection rate is high or low.
But MK Yaakov Asher, chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, said that “If there is no clear plan, there will be no closure on red cities.”
He asked how people in those cities would go to work, not be fired from their jobs, and receive medical care out of their zone.
“Professionals cannot just ignite traffic lights,” Asher said.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky – the non- hassidic ultra- Orthodox leader who himself has been diagnosed with COVID- 19 – recommended that Talmud Torah academies would be opened on Monday, despite Health Ministry regulations that prevent this.
However, he noted that this was only his recommendation and that it was better for this decision to be made with the consent of professional bodies, in collaboration with local municipalities. Later, the Jerusalem Municipality reported that at the request of Mayor Moshe Lion to Kanievsky, Talmud Torah schools would not open in the Holy City. •
Turner- Eyal’s resignation follows the departure of the ministry’s budget chief Shaul Meridor in August.
Meridor said then that he was quitting because he believed the government was grossly mishandling the fallout from the coronavirus crisis by making “short- sighted” decisions and ignoring economic norms. He also blamed Katz for “cultivating an atmosphere of terror” in the ministry.
A month earlier, former accountant- general Rony Hizkiyahu stepped down.
Unlike Meridor and Hizkiyahu, Turner- Eyal’s was a personal appointment made by Katz when he brought her with him to the ministry, and her departure may indicate that even those who supported the minister all the way can no longer do so.
In July, Turner- Eyal warned that imposing a second lockdown would prevent the economy from recovering. According to state broadcaster KAN, she often clashed on policy with Katz.
Turner was appointed to her position after she was let go by Miri Regev ( Likud), who replaced Katz at the Transportation Ministry while on maternity leave, making headlines and sparking controversy among feminist groups.
Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelah offered sarcastic congratulations to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz for “killing all the top branch of the Finance Ministry” when he said that “there is no budget, the economy is collapsing and the talented d- g [ that] Katz [ himself] appointed says: ‘ No more’ after only 4 months on the job.”
Shelah jabbed Netanyahu, who claimed world leaders call him to learn how to handle COVID- 19, when he said that “from across the world they call [ Israel] to learn how to do such things.”
Joint List MK Aida ToumaSliman said that “the Finance Ministry is falling apart during the greatest financial crisis this country has known, there is no budget, there is no real aid. There is no plan on how to exit this situation.”
“It is not a coincidence,” she added, “that skilled professionals are running away from the ministry when Katz and Netanyahu are placing their own personal and political interests ahead of the well- being of citizens.”
Her fellow party MK Ofer Cassif said that “when even the top brass at the Finance Ministry are placing their keys on the table, I think nobody outside the government is left who can believe [ that] it acts in the public interest.”
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz called the policy Katz and Netanyahu lead “a deafening failure” and argued they are killing the economy by closing the entire country “due to politics.”
Reuters report. to this •