Lawmakers spar over amended 2024 budget ahead of Knesset vote
Finance Minister Smotrich ‘doesn’t see the Arabs in the budget,’ says Ra’am MK Waleed Alhwashla, claiming package set to pass Wednesday will widen gaps between sectors of society
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"
Lawmakers kicked off a special 25-hour debate on the government’s controversial 2024 amended budget on Tuesday, ahead of the bill’s final two plenum readings on Wednesday afternoon.
According to the revised budget bill, which was passed by the cabinet in January and approved by the Knesset Finance Committee for its second and third readings last week, the government expenditure limit for 2024 will stand at NIS 584.1 billion ($160 billion), more than NIS 70 billion ($19 billion) higher than the original 2024 budget approved in May 2023, prior to the outbreak of war on October 7.
NIS 55 billion ($15 billion) of this additional 70 billion is allocated to financing the military while the rest will go toward civilian needs.
The budget pairs across-the-board cuts with additional spending on war-related matters and has generated widespread opposition — both within and outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition — with many complaining that it fails to trim extraneous spending and coalition-linked interests while cutting back on critical services.
Among these are billions of shekels in funding for ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, educational institutions that fail to teach the state-mandated core curriculum.
Despite this, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers also criticized parts of the budget, with Labor and Welfare Committee Chairman Yisrael Eichler objecting to its failure to expand funding of the government’s New Horizon program to their sector’s education systems.
There are “teachers in Haredi education who do the same job as any other teacher” but do not receive funding under the government’s Ofek Hadash (New Horizon) plan “just because they are Haredi,” Eichler complained.
The Haredim have long sought to become part of the New Horizon program, which funds work in small groups between teachers and pupils and bumps up teacher salaries, among other initiatives.
However, the program is currently restricted to state schools and does not apply to independent Haredi schools, which do not teach secular subjects.
This disparity is “a matter of plunder, usurpation and injustice” against Haredim, Eichler told lawmakers.
A poll of 600 people carried out by the Smith Institute and published by Channel 12 on Tuesday found a large majority of Jewish citizens opposed the budget’s allocation of billions of shekels to the Haredi school system, including 67% of Likud voters.
The budget has also come under fire from Arab lawmakers, who contend that it will heighten inequality and hamper efforts to combat organized crime in their communities.
Addressing the plenum on Tuesday, Ra’am (United Arab List) MK Waleed Alhwashla objected to plans to cut about 15% of funding for a five-year plan intended to advance the social and economic integration of Arab Israelis, calling the budget one that “doesn’t see Arab society or Bedouin society.”
“Just like [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich doesn’t see and doesn’t want to see the Arab women with his wife in the maternity ward, so he doesn’t see the Arabs in the budget,” Alhwashla said.
“Instead of advancing the closure of gaps,” the budget “widens them,” he continued, accusing the government of “giving a green light” to crime in the Arab community rather than combating it.
"בדיוק כמו שסמוטריץ' לא רואה ולא רוצה לראות את הנשים הערביות עם אשתו במחלקת יולדות, כך הוא לא רואה את הערבים בתקציב" – כך פתח ח"כ ואליד אלהואשלה את נאומו במליאה בדיון על העברת תקציב המדינה לשנת 2024@WAlhwashla @bezalelsm pic.twitter.com/j2LfKt1ZNv
— ערוץ כנסת (@KnessetT) March 12, 2024
The Shin Bet and National Security Council reportedly warned earlier this year that such cuts could “intensify the risks of an outbreak of violence.”
2023 was the bloodiest ever year in the community on record, with 244 Arab Israelis killed.
Critics have also panned the budget for its impact on farming, warning that a 20% budget cut planned for the Volcani Institute, Israel’s world-renowned agricultural research body, could potentially halt its activities.
Addressing the Science and Technology Committee on Tuesday, Deputy Agriculture Minister Moshe Abutbul (Shas) declared that the proposed budget cut would “cause great damage to science and technology” and pledged to “fight to the last drop so that there is no damage.”
In response, Yesh Atid MK Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu blamed Abutbul for the threat to the institute, asserting that as a representative of the government “you set the priorities. Instead of science and innovation, you transfer hundreds of millions to Jewish identity.”
On Sunday, the cabinet voted to allocate NIS 25 million (roughly $7 million) for the establishment of a Jewish National Identity Authority headed by far-right MK Avi Maoz, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Knesset representative of the anti-LGBTQ Noam party.
A representative of the Finance Ministry told lawmakers the decision on what programs to cut was made by the ministry itself and was “carried out at the discretion of the agriculture minister.”
In a separate vote on Tuesday, the Knesset Joint Defense Budget Committee unanimously approved the allocation of funds made available via the 2024 defense budget for the Defense Ministry and defense-related departments operating under the Prime Minister’s Office.
The government’s proposed amended 2024 wartime budget allocates NIS 117 billion ($32 billion) for defense, an increase of NIS 53 billion ($14 billion) over the NIS 64 billion ($17 billion) budget originally approved last year — an increase of 82 percent.
In addition, the committee approves NIS 50 billion ($13 billion) in income-contingent spending, an increase of around NIS 32 billion ($8.7 billion), “most of which is from the designated aid grant from the United States” intended to fund the war in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters at his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset yesterday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that he “expects the opposition to understand the magnitude of the hour and not oppose a responsible budget.”
“A vote against the budget is like a vote against the continuation of fighting and civilian resilience,” he said.
