From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Knesset committee okays funds for defense-related programs including grants for reservists, trauma treatment
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"
The Knesset Joint Defense Budget Committee unanimously approves 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 an 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.
According to law, the internal division of the defense budget is approved by the Joint Committee of the Finance Committee and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on the Defense Budget rather than the Knesset plenum.
After consulting with the heads of the Shin Bet security agency, the deputy head of the Mossad and the chief of the IDF Planning Directorate, among others, the committee allocated money for a variety of programs. These include grants for IDF reservists, the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers and the bolstering of efforts to treat war-related trauma.
The Knesset plenum is currently in the middle of a special 25-hour debate ahead of a vote of the proposed amended 2024 wartime budget.
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.
The budget bill’s second and third readings are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
