Ashkelon graves update

ASHKELON GRAVES UPDATE:

Panel to ‘reconsider’ Barzilai decision
By GIL HOFFMAN (Jerusalem Post)
23/03/2010 02:02

Kadima on Netanyahu’s move: Origami prime minister has folded again.

In a move seen as caving in to public pressure, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday instructed his director-general, Eyal Gabai, to head a task force that would reevaluate Sunday’s cabinet decision to relocate the proposed reinforced emergency room for Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center.

The cabinet had approved by a narrow margin Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman’s proposal to build the emergency room at a more distant site because ancient bones were found at the original site. Critics say that revising the plans would cost an extra NIS 136 million, delay the project for two years and put the facility too far from the hospital’s main building.

Netanyahu made the decision after meeting with close aides following his arrival in Washington. After he was briefed about the public outcry, he called Litzman and said the decision had to be changed.

“The new task force will determine, together with all the relevant authorities, the possibility of erecting the secure emergency room at Barzilai Hospital in a way in which lives will not be endangered,” a Prime Minister’s Office press release said. “The task force’s conclusions will be presented immediately after Pessah. Until then there will not be any work done on the facility.”

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