The events of this week in the campaign against Iran have unequivocally demonstrated that there is no longer a safe place in Israel – missiles are hitting all parts of the country without distinction’
This week, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel sent an urgent letter to Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Construction and Housing Minister Haim Katz, and other senior officials in the government and defense establishment, demanding immediate implementation and budgeting of government decisions regarding the protection of residential homes. The appeal comes in light of the many deaths from Iranian missile attacks this week, most of them due to lack of access to a protected area.
In the letter, the Movement states that over the past decade it has consistently appealed to the government regarding the implementation of government decision no. 2025 from 2014, which deals with the protection of residential homes. The Movement has sent dozens of reminder letters and urgent appeals during previous military operations, but most of them have been ignored. The decision has not yet been implemented.
The data presented by the Knesset Research and Information Center and the Central Bureau of Statistics paint a worrying picture: about 90% of the apartments in Bat Yam are unprotected, and about 84% of the apartments in Jerusalem. The Movement’s position is that ‘the continuation of this failure, which in normal times constitutes a serious breach of civil preparedness, takes on a particularly tragic aspect in light of the recent security incidents. This is an omission that is no longer a planning or budgetary question – but a matter of life and death.’
The letter details a full chronology of the Movement’s appeals to the government: starting with the first letter on November 26, 2018, through numerous reminder letters, urgent appeals during Operation Shield and Arrow in May 2023, and ending with the last appeal in November 2023 with the outbreak of the Iron Swords war.
The Movement bases its letter on Section 11 of the Interpretation Law, which states that administrative authorities must act ‘with due speed’ to exercise their authority. ‘This provision takes on added importance when it comes to protecting the lives of civilians in wartime,’ the letter states.
The Movement demands that the government act immediately, in accordance with the law and without any further delay, to complete the implementation of the government decisions regarding protection and allocate budgets for them, so that reasonable and appropriate protection solutions are possible for all citizens of the country in all authorities. The letter emphasizes that ‘the new reality requires a comprehensive approach to protection – one that is not satisfied with a specific reinforcements, but requires a broad and comprehensive deployment of protective measures in all localities of the country.’
Adv. Rotem Bavli Dvir, head of the Movement’s legal department: ‘The events of this week have proven once again that failure to protect carries at the heaviest price – human life. When the government makes decisions and does not implement them, when it neglects the protection of citizens, this is a fundamental failure of good governance and government responsibility. The Movement will continue to demand full implementation of the decisions until every citizen has adequate protection.’
the letter (heb):
יישום החלטות הממשלה לעניין גיבוש פתרונות מיגון בבתי מגורים – 17.6.2025
