It's now the law: All towns and villages, not only cities, must assign street names and house numbers. It will help citizens to receive benefits – and Arab cities to collect taxes.

The Knesset passed the final readings of the new law on Monday, instituting into law the proposal by MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union). Until now, only full-fledged cities were required to assign street names and house numbers.

"This law is very important from several aspects," Eldad explained. "It will help both the citizens and the authorities. It will enable the latter to enforce the law in an efficient manner, and to collect various fines and fees that various sectors in Israel – and especially the Arab sector – were able to systematically avoid, using the excuse that there was no address or house number."

In addition, Eldad said, "The Health Ministry, for instance, has had trouble locating many citizens who don't have an address, and many who are eligible for various benefits sometimes lose out on payments they deserve to receive."

Local government bodies that do not fulfill the law and do not assign names to every street and numbers to every house will have to answer to the Interior Ministry, Eldad said, "and they certainly will not receive stimulus payments or grants from the Ministry."