Arab municipal leaders fled

From Ynet News, 28/8/06, by Attila Somfalvi ...

Interior minister [Bar-on]: Top Arab municipal officials in north ran away, abandoned communities; MK Eitam: Arab leaders pretending to be deprived

...Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On slammed on Monday senior local authority heads in the north for "fleeing" their posts during the recent war. Bar-On did not name the culprits but made it clear most of them were Arab municipal heads. He said that in some cases officials made use of municipal security vehicles to make their escape... "....the (ministry) director-general and I went up north…I discovered very serious flaws in certain towns, which I will not name in order to maintain their dignity..... I was told that a large part of the town's management – both the elected political management but particularly the executive ranks – ran away, at the highest levels," Bar-On said...

.... Bar-On concluded his remarks with an unequivocal statement: "I’m telling you in the clearest, most decisive manner, that the first and most decisive lesson of this war is that in places where we had a serious, responsible and functioning mayor and municipal management, there were no problems…while in places where municipal heads were weak, irresponsible and incompetent, everything collapsed and no assistance made a difference."

National Union-National Religious Party Chairman MK Effie Eitam also slammed the Arab local authority heads during the discussion, saying that "they are pretending to be deprived.....I don’t understand why my children have to serve in the army and die so that Arab local authority heads can pretend to be deprived. They were not loyal to the country during the war."