On 2 April 2024, the Knesset Finance Committee approved the plan for the privatization of Israel Post Co., following the decision of the Ministerial Privatization Committee to exclude Beeri Print from the bidding process at the recommendation of the Israel Competition Authority.
Zulat’s position is that the decision to disqualify Beeri Print, seemingly based on the notion that competition is all that is needed to improve the national post service, is irrelevant given that there is not and cannot be real competition where the supply of such an essential service as the post is concerned. Postal services are essential and monopolistic in Israel (over 60%) and around the world, and this will presumably not change. The question that needs to be asked is what type of corporation can provide such a service and at the same time ensure non-predatory prices and fair employment conditions for the workers.
Beeri Print, currently the main provider of printing products to government and state institutions, has proven its ability to provide a monopolistic yet equal service to all without maximizing profits. The State of Israel is about to invest a fortune to rebuild the local economy in the Gaza Envelope communities, a large part of it in companies whose success and employment conditions are uncertain. Transforming Beeri Print into the provider of such an essential service like the mail will perforce contribute to this end, knowing that the workers will enjoy fair and respectable employment conditions and that no dividends will be distributed to shareholders (which is what all the other bidders will do if they win).
It should also be noted that the plan presented to the Finance Committee does not even begin to answer the fundamental questions regarding the continued operation of Israel Post Co.’s Postal Bank, which caters to the weakest segment of the population in the Israeli economy.
Zulat’s position paper was relayed to the Knesset Finance Committee with a request to halt a process that utterly harms a basic service to the Israeli public and to walk back the shameful exclusion of Beeri Print, a venture rooted in the community and in Israeli society that is qualified to provide the required service and is a fair and benevolent workplace in an outlying region of the country.
In conclusion, when discussing the privatization of an essential service that will operate as a monopoly, it is necessary to examine not only competition but all other relevant aspects. Biddings for the supply of an essential service, certainly a monopolistic one, should factor in such considerations as gender equality, closure of gaps, the climate crisis, etc., and give priority to corporations that embody a commitment to the aforementioned principles.
