Treasury adds NIS 35m. to immigrant students aid

Treasury allocates funds to prevent Israel Student Authority closure, maintain aid to immigrant students.

By DANIELLE ZIRI
New immigrants 370 (photo credit: Amichai Shikli)
New immigrants 370
(photo credit: Amichai Shikli)
The Treasury announced on Wednesday that an additional NIS 35 million will be added to budget of the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, in order to keep the Israel Student Authority for student olim open.
The funds were allocated after members of the Knesset Aliya Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, headed by MK Yoel Razbozov (Yesh Atid), earlier this month expressed opposition to the possible closure of the authority.
The lack of funds came after a recent government decision determined that, beginning in August 2013, the ministry will exclusively fund the project, a decision that put some 7,000 immigrant students at risk of not receiving financial aid and the full scholarship for three years of study to which they are entitled.
Razbozov, who had pledged to make the issue a “top priority,” welcomed the decision, which he said constitutes “wonderful news for students in Israel,” and thanked the members of the committee as well as Finance Minister Yair Lapid for understanding the importance of the issue.
“The Israel Student Authority is one of the most important projects of the modern Zionist enterprise,” he said. “Thousands of young people from all over the world come to get an education in Israel, and most of them remain in Israel, constituting a locomotive for economic growth.”
“Research shows that every shekel that the state invests in the Israel Student Authority returns directly and indirectly by dozens, and that’s before mentioning military service,” Razbozov added.