Affirmative Action costs a lot of money in Israel. The PMO (prime Minister's Office) in conjunction with the Authority For the Economic Development of the Arab sector has come up with a plan to encourage and bolster employment in the Arab sector.

That encouragement plays to the tune of paying 9000 NIS (as per meeting certain requirements) to employers who would hire Arab workers. (source: Israel Employment Service)

The program is meant to be used for employing academic Arabs (those with college degrees) who are unemployed.

This affirmative action is expensive.

In other news, not really related but I will make a connection anyway, a construction plan has been submitted to build 2500 homes, for Arabs, in East Jerusalem. The right-wing side of the coalition in Jerusalem is trying to hold up, and possibly thwart, the plans from being approved. They say it is poorly planned and politically dangerous. the location would give a contiguous slice of Arab neighborhoods that would eventually become a natural border and spot for the division of the country.

At the same time, the left-wing activists are trying to push it through and are criticizing Barkat for not doing enough to push it through. Even though the plan was sponsored by the City, he has not really gone out of his way to pressure his coalition members to vote for it and help it pass.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with building homes for Arabs. If we want to retain control of the land, and if we want to be in charge, and we want them to choose to stay under our rule and not PA rule, we have to build homes for Arabs just like we build for Jews. Granted, we need to build for Jews as well, which is something the government is not so good at doing right now in Jerusalem, but we also need to build for Arabs.

The irony though is that the left-wingers who criticize Barkat and Netanyahu every time a plan is announced to build homes for Jews in Jerusalem, and try to get the plans canceled, are jumping to push through a plan to build for Arabs. It seems they want us to pay for the land development and bureaucracy (even though according to the Haaretz article it is the landowners who will pay for the development and not the city, I am sure the city will have plenty of costs of its own once this gets under way), and then give that to the Arabs. According to the left-wing people they should not be allowing any construction in East Jerusalem until negotiations are concluded, at all, and if there is any for Arabs despite that, at least the PA should have to pay for it...