From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Gafni urges Knesset to pass war budget
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"
Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni calls on lawmakers to pass the amended 2024 budget despite his own reservations about the legislation.
Addressing the Knesset plenum ahead of the bill’s second and third readings, the Haredi lawmaker says that “with all our reservations about the budget – I believe that it should be approved.”
He cites steep budget cuts to the Arab community as something that needs to be changed.
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.
A poll of 600 people carried out by the Smith Institute and published by Channel 12 yesterday also found a large majority of Jewish citizens opposed to the budget’s allocation of billions of shekels to the Haredi school system, including 67% of Likud voters. According to the poll, zero percent of Haredi polled expressed opposition to the budget.
The Times of Israel Community.