Government earmarks NIS 25 million to establish Jewish National Identity Authority

Government ministers have voted to allocate NIS 25 million (roughly $7 million) for the establishment of a Jewish National Identity Authority headed by MK Avi Maoz, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office.

The vote was conducted over WhatsApp, Hebrew media outlet Ynet reports, and comes just two days before the 2024 state budget must be submitted to a vote in the Knesset.

Hebrew daily Haaretz reports that at least NIS 5 million of the earmarked funds are expected to be used for projects that are already addressed by other government bodies.

According to the report, NIS 2 million will be used to promote a stronger connection to Jerusalem, though a Jerusalem Affairs Ministry already exists. An additional NIS 3 million will go toward the “issue of Jewish national identity in the Negev and the Galilee,” even though the Negev and Galilee Ministry deals with exactly that subject.

Maoz, the far-right MK who will head the authority, is a divisive figure in Israeli politics, and the sole Knesset representative of the anti-LGBTQ Noam party.

After the vote, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slammed the government for allocating the funds to Maoz’s new authority rather than to evacuees, soldiers or “businesses that collapsed during the war.”

“A government that has lost its way,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.