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Monday, October 27, 2025
After long delay, Knesset okays NIS 1.2 billion for north’s rehabilitation
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAriela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
The Knesset Finance Committee approves a long-awaited transfer of NIS 1.2 billion ($308 million) for rehabilitation and economic recovery programs in northern Israel, following months of delays caused by the Finance Ministry’s refusal to provide supplementary information requested by the committee’s legal advisers.
The delay has postponed much-needed funds for communities still reeling from Israel’s war against Hezbollah in the north.
The funding will be used to implement two government resolutions from July to support towns within a two-kilometer radius of the Lebanese border, whose residents were evacuated, and to revive businesses and municipal activity up to nine kilometers from the border.
Approximately 60,000 northern residents were displaced by Hezbollah’s attacks on the north between October 2023 and November 2024.
The government approved a plan in October 2024 to rehabilitate and develop the North in the aftermath of the war, earmarking NIS 15 billion over five years. Some of these funds have yet to be disbursed.
Adv. Shlomit Erlich, the committee’s legal adviser, explains that the Treasury initially submitted incomplete documents and refused to provide the supplementary information requested by the committee, only finally submitting it five days ago.
A representative from the Treasury’s Budget Department confirms that the department received the original request from the committee nearly three months ago, in August.
Tzachi Chen, deputy head of the Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council, voices frustration at the delay: “The claim is that this takes time, but we don’t have time. We’ve already committed millions to contractors; we’re collapsing under the weight. The funds need to arrive immediately.”
Finance Committee Chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky says that claims that the committee was responsible for holding up the transfer are false. “Nothing was delayed here — this was brought to discussion at the very first meeting after the legal department’s requirements were met,” he says.
While he says that he doesn’t believe that the Finance Ministry was “deliberately” holding up the process, he calls on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “to do what’s necessary” for the funds to reach Northern communities as soon as possible.
The Times of Israel Community.