National Emergency Authority Unable to Function

National Emergency Authority Unable to Function

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By Arie Egozi

Israel’s National Emergency Authority (RACHEL) is unable to function during an emergency situation. Its formal announcement last week did not change the situation.

Last week the Authority warned about the severe flaws in the Israeli home front readiness to a future war org emergency.

The Authority announced that according to its evaluation, about half a billion shekels were still needed yearly  for the next five years in order to reduce gaps in the defense of strategic infrastructure sites and the readiness of local authorities, the welfare and health systems. Authority head  Brig. Gen. (Res.) Betzalel Treiber spoke with the Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on Sunday last week and informed him about his recommendations. At present the home front readiness gets some 200 million shekels a year, outside the defense budget, half of the sum is dedicated to the Home Front Command activity and half – to the Authority’s.

A new Environment Minister was appointed last week. RACHEL sources said yesterday that they did not hear about any change in the government’s attitude to the problem.

Emergency organizations have long contested that the Authority was not functioning due to lack of resources. “With no money and with absence of clear standards, the organization is simply not functioning”, a source in the emergency array said yesterday.

There is no coordination among the various rescue organizations, no adequate equipment and  no action plans. We’ve got no more than entities with impressive titles that, although at least they caution about their incompetence to fulfill their roles properly.

Different government offices are reportedly disputing regarding the allocation of resources to the Authority.

The emergency array source told iHLS yesterday that the situation is grave, and that in an emergency situation the results might be very bad.