Against the backdrop of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Finance Committee of the Knesset, chaired by MK Moshe Gafni, held a discussion today (Monday) on the subject of "the economic preparedness of the State of Israel for earthquakes".
Gafni opened the discussion by saying that "we all pray that this will not happen, but we need to be prepared for this terrible thing. We see what is happening in Turkey and Syria, it is a disaster of a very significant magnitude. I understand that the government established the Ministerial Committee for Homeland Preparedness and allocated money for it. We would like to know Is there a budget for the issue and is there a process that should take place."
Chairman of the Finance Committee Gafni, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
At the beginning of the discussion, the Ministry of Finance voted for their support for urban renewal.
"This is the fundamental and central solution to this issue," noted Assaf Wexler on behalf of the ministry, adding that "in the last seven years, about two billion shekels have been allocated for urban renewal and preventing the collapse of buildings. In '22 alone, between 300 and 400 million shekels were allocated for urban renewal. Also, In recent years, the administrations in the local authorities have been budgeted to promote the issue."
The chairman of the committee commented on these things: "I am asking if there is a special budget for the issue of earthquakes." Wexler replied that "for the benefit of strengthening buildings, the Ministry of Housing has been allocated about 50 million shekels.
Each ministry invests an additional budget to strengthen buildings it owns.
It changes from year to year, it's about tens of millions of shekels for all the government ministries that are allocated to the issue each year."
Further to the chairman's question about whether the matter would include an earthquake scenario, the finance representative added that "the government is preparing and so is each ministry on its own.
There are several teams in the Prime Minister's Office that carry out assessments on various issues, including insurance and building strengthening. The Housing Ministry has strengthening of civilian buildings and alongside this we are preparing for the state budget."
Turkey: A rescue team from El Salvador rescues a woman from the rubble // Photo: Reuters
The chairman of the committee criticized the words of the finance representative: "There is an earthquake, there are many, many families who are financially affected, they don't have a roof over their heads, they don't have anything, they have nothing.
A reformed country takes command of this thing.
All in all, it's about the need for a special budget, and you're leading me to all kinds of decisions that don't pertain to the discussion, the fact that each ministry is supposed to give a share, we know, that doesn't solve the problem, these are tiny amounts. What do we do with tens and hundreds of thousands who are left without a roof over their heads ? Is there money for this topic?!"
Finance representative Wexler replied to the statements that "one day after an earthquake occurs in Israel, budgets for this issue will be released if necessary. In the state budget system, the state does not keep money aside, funds are allocated today for earthquake assessments."
MK Gafni: "How much money does the State of Israel allocate for such a disaster of an earthquake, and where is it?". Wexler: "I don't have an answer to this.
The state budget is managed so that we manage risks, many times events meet us and we find the budget.
There is no budget parked, as the corona met us and we opened corona boxes."
Ministry of Finance building, photo: Dodi Vaaknin
Later in the discussion, the committee touched on the issue of insurance.
Ohad Maodi, Deputy Chairman of the Capital Market Authority stated that "in terms of coverage of the population, Israel's situation relative to the OECD countries is good - about 65% of households in Israel are insured.
Regarding the health system, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health Uri Goldstein noted that regarding the evacuation of hospitals during an earthquake, there is a small financial gap of approximately NIS 10 million to complete all the plans in this regard.
Regarding the strengthening of non-structural systems, such as gas pipelines and generators, these are also "not high" amounts, according to him.
But when it comes to the buildings of the hospitals themselves, "we are talking about hundreds of millions to billions" to strengthen them against earthquakes.
the earthquake.
Horrible sights, photo: Reuters
Amir Yahav, Director of the Steering Committee for Earthquake Preparedness, from the Ministry of Defense stated that "The Ministry of Finance has estimated how much the damage of an earthquake will cost us and it is about NIS 150 billion. Prevention will be much cheaper.
Later in the discussion, Yahav presented that there are settlements in areas with a high risk of harm, and that along with other characteristics that were defined, 10 settlements were marked in the highest risk areas.
Members of the Knesset from the Arab sector stated that there is not a single Arab settlement on the list, while there are Arab settlements that are located exactly in the areas defined as dangerous and meet the defined characteristics.
In light of this, the chairman of the committee called for Lihav to send the committee the list of settlements that are at risk, and to indicate whether there are also Arab settlements in this group.
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