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Avi Horomero, Chairman of the Board of Eilat Port, has called on the Israeli government for financial assistance, threatening to lay off half of the port’s workforce due to its disruption for the past eight months.
In a letter to Israeli Transport Minister Miri Regev, Horomero, who is also one of the port’s owners, stated that Eilat Port is facing a “critical situation” due to its shutdown resulting from the war on Gaza.
The port’s management is threatening to lay off approximately 50-60 out of the 120 employees if the Israeli government does not provide financial aid. This disruption has been ongoing for eight months following the start of Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Horomero requested an urgent meeting with Regev to discuss the port’s situation. He wrote, “Eilat Port has been out of operation for eight months due to the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ and the closure of the spectacle route at Bab al-Mandab.”
He added, “My partners and I, as owners of the company, have been bearing the enormous costs of continuous port maintenance and employee salaries for the past eight months.”
Horomero continued, “I believe no commercial company can withstand a challenge like the one we are facing at this stage.”
He noted, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel paid millions to companies that threatened to put employees on unpaid leave. However, we, who form a national infrastructure and have been declared a strategic national asset by Israeli governments, do not receive the necessary assistance.”
He further stated, “Given the situation, we have no choice but to begin laying off about 50-60 employees, leaving only essential workers at the port.” He urged Regev to intervene quickly to resolve the issue before layoffs begin.
Eilat Port announced in March that it would lay off workers but has not yet done so. The Knesset’s Economic Committee threatened at the time to nationalize the port if layoffs occurred.
It is worth noting that before the war, Eilat Port was the main port for car imports to Israel, receiving around 150,000 cars last year. However, no cars have arrived since the beginning of this year.
Source: RT
