Petty party contrarianism from the opposition prevented a government-sponsored program aimed at strategically easing the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip from kicking off just over a year ago, Israel Hayom has discovered.
Over the past year, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Michael Oren, of Kulanu, has been advancing a proposal to enlist European countries to help improve the transfer of goods into the Gaza Strip and the movement of residents in and out without compromising Israel's security.
But Oren's busy travel schedule, which sent him on frequent trips abroad to meet with world leaders to present his plan, was not received well by the opposition. So when he asked members of the opposition to stay away from routine votes, to offset his absence on the coalition side, his request was consistently refused. As a result, he was forced to cancel meetings with European officials, setting the program back significantly. Thus, the opposition's shortsighted and narrow political interests ended up harming the wider, national interest.
The plan was to coordinate the transfer of goods at the Erez border crossing, allow 6,000 Palestinian workers from Gaza to enter Israel and to repurpose containers meant to store goods as homes. Using containers as homes would address Gaza's debilitating housing crisis without having to provide Gaza with building materials, which would likely be used for terrorist purposes.
Oren planned to fly to Oslo and London in November 2016, with the aim of meeting then-Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende and then-Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Tobias Ellwood and other British officials. Oren looked for someone to offset his absence from the Knesset and implored a number of opposition MKs, primarily from Yesh Atid, but they categorically refused.
Yesh Atid MK Haim Jelin's refusal came as a particular surprise, as he had previously lived in a town near the Gaza border and headed the Eshkol Regional Council in the northwestern Negev.
"I was disappointed to see that petty politics and having to incessantly deal with offsetting [my absence in the plenum] compromises the national and security interests of Israel in its foreign relations," Oren said.
In response, Yesh Atid issued a statement saying that "contrary to the deception the coalition is trying to create, the issue of offsetting does not affect the functioning of its ministers and MKs."
