Off the wire
• 5 killed as gunmen attack shop in SW Pakistan  • Angolan president leaves for state visit to China  • China coal giant Shenhua's executive under investigation  • 2nd LD-Writethru-China Focus: 9.42 mln sit China's college entrance exam  • Townies flock to countryside to sample life in rural Britain as farms throw open their gates  • Roundup: Syrian troops advance against IS militants in northern city  • Cashier-free grocery stores tested in two Chinese cities  • Cypriot Aphrodite gas field declared commercial, production planning starts  • Cypriot court orders detention of Lebanese man in suspected terrorist case  • 1st LD-Writethru-China Focus: 9.42 mln sit China's college entrance exam  
You are here: 　 Home

Israel OKs development plan for Druze, Circassian minorities

Xinhua, June 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved a five-year development plan aimed at helping the Druze and Circassian minorities in Israel, according to a statement from the office of the prime minister.

The plan, on which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon are signed, is set to cost two billion shekels (520 million U.S. dollars).

The development plan includes investments in expanding formal and informal education in those communities, improving school infrastructure and making higher education more accessible, as well as investment in expanding social welfare services.

The government sets out to invest in developing industrial zones and providing assistance to small and medium-sized business in order to combat unemployment rates, as well as work to improve the development of public structure and transportation and encourage tourism to Druze and Circassian sites.

Furthermore, 200 million shekels (52 million U.S. dollars) will aid the local Druze and Circassian councils.

The Druze is a small Arab sect in the Middle East, based primarily in Lebanon, Syria and Israel, which broke off from Islam in the 11th century. In Israel, there are nearly 140,000 Druze living in northern Israel, with 20,000 living in the Golan Heights territories.

Druze community members have protested against what they dub as discrimination against them, claiming that Jewish communities receive higher allocations from the government than Druze villages do amid dire financial problems experienced by the latter.

They have also charged against nationalistic legislation in the form of the controversial "Jewish State Bill" that was adopted by the previous government in September seeking to enshrine the definition of Israel as the Jewish state. The bill was criticized for promoting Israel's "Jewishness" over its democratic nature.

The Circassians are North Caucasian ethnic group from Circassia, which was displaced in the Russian conquest of the region in the 19th century. The prominent religion among them is Sunni Islam and there are 4,000 of them living in Israel. Endit