The Knesset Joint Committee on the Defense Budget approves a 2016 defense budget of 56.1 billion shekels ($14.44 billion).
The figure includes the army and Defense Ministry, but not other security services such as the Shin Bet, Mossad or others.
Committee chairman MK Tzachi Hanegby praised lawmakers’ “uncompromising stance” in favor of a larger defense allocation, which he said would enable it to carry out “its operational missions.”
The defense budget passed 8-4 in the committee, and will be added to the broader government budget bill that the Knesset will be considering throughout this week.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon speaks to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on November 3, 2015. He is flanked by committee chair Tzachi Hanegbi and IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. (Issac Harari/Flash90)
The budget marks a compromise between the NIS 54 billion offered by Finance Ministry officials and the NIS 62 billion requested by the military.
As part of the compromise, NIS 3 billion ($770 million) more will be added to the budget during the year if the army carries out some financial and personnel reforms demanded by the Treasury, and a further billion ($260 million) will be paid out to compensate for rising cost indices and inflation.
In all, the IDF and Defense Ministry could cost taxpayers as much as NIS 60 billion ($15.44 billion) in 2016 — assuming no major conflict ups the nation’s military expenditures.
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