Municipalities and local authorities throughout Israel went on strike and shut down services on Monday in protest of the government’s plan to start a “City Tax Fund” as part of the budget, Maariv reported.
This comes following protests made on Sunday as well as a threat to strike made by Federation of Local Authorities in Israel chairman Haim Bibas, who is also the mayor of Modi’in.
The fund’s stated purpose is to lower housing prices. According to law, the commercial real estate pays higher city taxes than residential real estate – and therefore cities are incentivized to allocate land for commercial construction. This lowers the supply of residential housing and thus raises its price.
The new fund will appropriate part of the earnings of wealthier cities from their tax on commercial real estate, and reallocate the funds to poorer cities for every housing unit they build.
By doing this, the government hopes to incentivize both wealthier and poorer cities to invest in housing instead of commercial real estate, and thus raise the supply of housing, and, eventually, lower home prices.
Chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities and Mayor of Modi’in Haim Bibas and head of the local authorities attend a protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, demanding better budgets, February 26, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)Which municipalities are on strike throughout Israel?
The strikes are present throughout Israel, even in four of Israel’s five largest cities: Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ashdod and Rishon Lezion. However, the Jerusalem Municipality announced it would not go on strike and would continue all services, Maariv reported.
Other cities going on strike include:
- Modi’in
- Herzliya
- Ramle
- Ramat Gan
- Givatayim
- Ashdod
- Kfar Saba
- Ra’anana
- Tiberias
- Givat Shmuel
- Ramat Hasharon
- Holon
- Beersheba
- Netanya
- Shoham
- Or Yehuda
In addition, a number of Arab municipalities have joined in on the strike, with local authorities saying they would end up victims rather than beneficiaries of the City Tax Fund, Walla reported.
The Arab municipalities on strike include:
- Kafr Kassem
- Umm el-Fahm
- Tira
- Rahat (with the exception of schools)
What does it mean for local municipalities to shut down services?
The services shut down by the strike include:
- Public preschools
- Garbage collection
- Sanitation services
- Security services at elementary schools
- Public reception at municipal offices
- Parking fines in blue-and-white-marked parking spaces
Some services, like special education, will continue as normal. In addition, some municipalities such as Rahat and Petah Tikva have only shut down some services but not all of them.
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.
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