Bennett announces $160.8 million Negev assistance package

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday the submission of a “significant” assistance package for Beersheva and other Negev communities.

“We will invest almost NIS 500 million [$160.8 million] in education, employment, reducing wage gaps, planning a public hospital, strengthening technology and innovation, developing transportation and creating rapid transportation from the center of the country to the south, infrastructures—and the list is still long,” said Bennett during the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

“We have spoken about investing in the Negev and here it is happening on the ground. As Ben-Gurion said, ‘The people of Israel will be tested in the Negev,’” he added.