Israel’s cabinet on Sunday approved the formation of a new ministerial committee to “fight the high cost of living“, which is set to meet late this week, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The committee will set “unified government policy” and coordinate between the ministries on the issue, including, among others, “steps to increase competition, reduce [economic] concentration, improving and reducing regulation on different economic sectors and lifting limits on import,” according to the text of the cabinet decision.
The committee will also “examine the legal and regulatory arrangements” that affect the cost of living, and will “develop proposals for structural changes and reforms.” It also intends to direct the Competition Authority to provide a layout of the levels of competition in the economy’s different sectors, in order to supply the ministers with a “broad and dependable factual basis.”
The committee will be led by Netanyahu and include 12 other ministers, including committee chair substitute Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party), Economy Minister Nir Barkat (Likud), Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud), Environmental Protection minister Idit Silman (Likud), and Energy Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud).
It will also include a series of permanent invitees, including the Directors General of a number of the Prime Minister’s Office and Finance, Economy and Agriculture ministries, as well as the chief of Israel’s National Economic Council, head of the finance ministry’s budget department, and the Bank of Israel governor.
Governor of the Bank of Israel Amir Yaron speaks during a press conference at the Bank of Israel offices in Jerusalem, on January 2, 2022. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)“We will develop plans, lead reforms and act with all methods in order to ensure that the government carries out all of the necessary actions: Opening markets, reducing barriers, acting on distributors, importers and suppliers, in order to lower the prices and the cost of living for the citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu said at the beginning of the cabinet meeting.
Development of the Negev and Galilee and National Resilience Minister, Yizhak Wasserlauf, also a member of the committee, said that “the committee’s formation is the method, not the goal, and we will act to provide solutions and implement them. I will act as a member of the committee to promote necessary solutions to lower the high cost of living, that is a burden on the citizens of Israel.”
Forming another committee is not the solution
Opposition members pointed out last week, after Netanyahu announced the cabinet’s intention to form the committee, that such a committee already existed – the statutory Socio-Economic Cabinet, which the prime minister leads, and which was not convened since the government’s formation in late December. Knesset members from the opposition charged that forming another committee was not the solution, but rather an attempt to show that it is doing something.
“There is no doubt that this bad government is good at one thing – making up titles and committees to cover up their lack of caring about the public,” Labor MK Naama Lazimi said.
“Netanyahu – the citizens of Israel do not need another committee that will conceal your lack of vision and action, they need a work plan, acknowledgment of the difficult reality of the high cost of living and housing crisis, and a change of economic paradigm, things you will never know you will be able to give them. Resign,” Lazimi said.
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