Barak: Labor won't accept budget without cancellation of stipends' freezing

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Labor will not support the state budget without making several changes to it, party leader Ehud Barak announced on Thursday following a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Choi Woon. "I am the defense minister of the state of Israel and I know that we cannot have genuine security without social immunization, therefore, as chairman [of the Labor party]… I tell you - the Labor party will be unable to support the [state] budget without addressing two issues - a cancellation of stipend freezing, and the second issue - a cancellation of the reduction to pension by 4% which began in 2002," Barak said in a statement released to the press.