Despite fierce opposition and videos showing Hadash faction head Raja Za’atara refusing to define Hamas and Hezbollah as terror organizations, Haifa’s city council approved his appointment tonight to the board of the Haifa Economic Company. The appointment was first reported by NWS. The Economic Company is Haifa’s main arm for managing and developing the city’s high-tech parks and strategic infrastructure. Among other things, it manages Matam Park, which houses the headquarters and R&D centers of Elbit Systems, alongside development complexes of Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries in the city’s science and high-tech park.
1+By virtue of his board membership, Za’atara may be exposed to business and strategic information, urban development plans, security arrangements, and procurement agreements related to the activities of companies and industries operating in the city. In the political system and among opponents of the appointment, warnings are being raised that this is an “immoral and dangerous appointment” that they claim could create a security risk and damage the trust of defense companies operating in Haifa.
Haifa Municipality’s response: “Ze’ev Jabotinsky wrote that ‘in any cabinet in which a Jew serves as prime minister, the deputy prime minister will be Arab’—so all the more so in a mixed city and model of coexistence like Haifa, an Arab can be a director in the Economic Company.”
1+National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir: “The appointment of Raja Za’atara, someone who refused to define Hamas and Hezbollah as terror organizations, to the board of a company responsible for strategic infrastructure and managing complexes where sensitive defense industries operate—is absolute madness. Someone who can’t say that Hamas and Hezbollah are terror organizations shouldn’t come near a place where he could be exposed to sensitive information related to Israel’s security. I call on the mayor of Haifa and the city council to come to their senses and cancel this dangerous appointment immediately. Israel’s security is not a political game.”