Government

Israel and Jordan signed an agreement on Monday under which Israel will purchase solar electricity from Jordan and Israel will supply it with desalinated water. Nevertheless, question marks may make it difficult to implement the move - despite Jordan's urgent need for water and Israel's desire to increase its use of solar electricity to meet its electricity generation targets from renewable sources. According to a joint statement to Israel, Jordan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates, where the signing ceremony was held, the Minister of Energy, Karin Elharar, the Minister of...

During the month of October, 25,402 jobseekers with disabilities were registered in the employment service, which constituted 9.1% among all jobseekers in that month. This emerges from a special report published by the Employment Service on the occasion of the International Day for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which took place on Friday. Although this is a relatively low rate for the proportion of people with disabilities among the general population since according to the CBS (as of 2020) 12% of those aged 20 and over have a severe functional disability and 29% of those aged...

The number of unemployed dropped to 292.2 thousand - still almost double the number on the eve of the corona crisis, at the beginning of 2020, which amounted to only about 160,000 unemployed. New data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that in the first half of November the number of unemployed decreased, by broad definition, compared with the second half of October, by about 16.4 thousand. This is a particularly high rate of return to work - from 308.6 thousand in the second half of October to 292.2 thousand in the first half of November. The rate decreased from 7.3% for...

The Minister of Education, Dr. Yifat Shasha-Bitton, fired the director of her office, Yigal Slovik, in an unusual move. This is an unusual move, as it is the immediate dismissal of an incumbent CEO, in the middle of the school year and in the middle of the corona crisis and a large-scale vaccination campaign. According to government sources, the disagreements between Slovik and Shasha-Biton, which led to the unusual move, arose against the background of his support for the new vaccination campaign in schools that began today, and the minister's opposition to the operation. Cause that they...

The Ministry of Finance is expected to announce in the coming days assistance to the aviation and tourism industries in Israel, in light of the fear that these industries will suffer another severe blow in the coming months due to the spread of the new Corona strain, Omicron, and additional restrictions on flights. On Sunday, the Ministry of Finance decided that there is no escape from assistance to these two industries, which have been affected more than any other industry in the economy since the Corona crisis began in March 2020. However, it is now clear that further heavy damage is...

The Ministry of Transportation and the Tel Aviv Municipality have announced that the new central station in the city will continue to operate in the coming years. According to the agreement between the parties, the evacuation of the station will be completed within four years. Within about two years, about 50% of the activity at the station will be transferred to bus terminals to be built on Harash Street and on the Tel Aviv-Holon border. Sources involved in the matter doubted that the plan would actually be implemented within the defined time periods, and estimated that the activity at...

A proposal that will go up for a vote on Sunday in front of the ministers effectively eliminates the green label in malls, street stores and shopping centers - and will introduce a strict purple label that includes occupancy restriction depending on the store area (excluding food and pharma stores). According to the proposal, stores with an area larger than 100 square meters will be able to admit customers according to a key of 15 square meters per person, and stores smaller than that - 7 square meters per customer or four customers for the entire store, whichever is higher

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gave the green light for the establishment of the State Commission of Inquiry into the Submarine Affair, and the vote on this will be submitted to the government for approval at its next meeting on Sunday. The decision was made after discussions between Prime Minister and Defense Minister Bnei Gantz, Justice Minister Gideon Saar and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. Gantz, who more than any other government minister promoted the establishment of the committee, welcomed the agreements: "This is a national need, and I thank the prime minister, the foreign minister,...

More than five years after suspicions of corruption in the purchase of submarines from Germany were first revealed, the government will approve on Sunday at its weekly meeting the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the affair. The committee, chaired by a judge, will be empowered to investigate the decision-making processes of the political echelon in relation to procurement processes and vessel transactions, as well as the involvement of former security officers and senior officials as intermediaries in large security transactions. The proposal, promoted by Defense...

The Knesset's Labor and Welfare Committee approved the understandings reached by the Minister of Finance, Avigdor Lieberman, and the chairman of the Labor and Welfare Committee, MK Efrat Reitan, who agreed to participate in financing the expenses of the self-employed during the days of isolation. This is an addition to the layout of the isolation days for the self-employed by increasing the daily rate given for an isolation day to NIS 570, an increase of 33% to the original amount of NIS 430, which was based on the tariff set in the Wall Guard operation. The announcement was made to the...