Knesset set to vote on billions for the north, but some coalition MKs are opposed
Proposal would increase budget by almost $924 million. United Torah Judaism, Noam and Otzma Yehudit parties threaten to tank bill unless their budgetary demands are met
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Despite being in the middle of the fall recess, lawmakers are slated to gather in the Knesset on Monday for a special plenum session to vote on an amendment to the 2024 state budget that would allocate billions of shekels to help fund evacuated civilians and reserve soldiers until the end of the year, given the ongoing months-long war.
The vote on the extra funds comes as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is busy advancing his 2025 budget plan and has generated pushback not only from the opposition, but also from coalition lawmakers who are demanding that the government take their own budgetary interests into account.
According to Smotrich’s proposed amendment, which was approved by the cabinet late last month, the budget will be increased by almost NIS 3.4 billion ($924 million).
According to Smotrich, the new expansion will add about NIS 2.2 billion in assistance for the continued support of some 80,000 Israelis who were evacuated from their homes along the borders with Gaza and Lebanon.
Nearly 70,000 residents of the north remain displaced following the outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel. In late August, the Prime Minister’s Office said that the government was extending assistance to those who cannot return to their homes in the north until the end of the year.
Another NIS 200 million will be allocated to help fund reserve military service and NIS 193 million for salary agreements forged last month for the extension of evacuee grants for the months of July and August, Smotrich said.
An additional NIS 255 million will go to grants for certain war-affected citizens. Smotrich said that NIS 525 million in funds drawn from a previous decision to make an across-the-board cut across ministries will be returned to the state coffers. As a result, the 2024 budget will be expanded by a total of NIS 3.4 billion, the Finance Ministry said.
The funds for reservists come after a previous tranche of NIS 9 billion ($2.5 billion) was approved this January. The 2024 budget was already amended once in March to reflect ballooning costs associated with the war in Gaza.
The expansion was met with significant backlash from officials within the Finance Ministry, as well as opposition politicians, with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid stating on Saturday evening that he was cancelling a planned trip to the United States due to the vote.
The budget has even garnered criticism from members of the coalition, who could potentially prevent the government from obtaining the needed majority to pass budget-related matters in the Finance Committee and the Knesset plenum.
Last week, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it will boycott discussions about the state budget until the issue of funds for private Haredi education is resolved.
Last month, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur to cut daycare subsidies for the children of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who refuse to obey military draft orders, drawing Haredi fury.
In addition, UTJ is demanding that the state grant ultra-Orthodox schools funding under the government’s Ofek Hadash (New Horizon) plan, which funds work in small groups between teachers and pupils and bumps up teacher salaries, among other initiatives, Hebrew media reported.
According to the national-religious Makor Rishon newspaper, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party is also threatening to withhold its support for the increase and is demanding increases for “police, the prison service and the fire and rescue system.”
MK Avi Maoz, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, has also threatened to oppose the bill unless he receives all of the money earmarked for his Jewish National Identity Authority.
In a tweet last week, the sole Knesset representative of the anti-LGBTQ Noam party declared that, “as things currently stand, I intend to vote against the 2024 budget amendment that will be brought to the Knesset next week.”
Speaking with national broadcaster Kan last week, Likud MK Amit Halevi denied a claim by Labor MK Gilad Kariv that the government was backing the advancement of a bill he is sponsoring during the recess in exchange for his support of the budget amendment.
Halevi’s bill requires institutions of higher education to terminate lecturers who express anti-Zionist sentiments.
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
